


Fever Dreams

by Arianllyn



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:46:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 19
Words: 36,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21535435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arianllyn/pseuds/Arianllyn
Summary: Dean Winchester, alpha, has the worst rut fever of his life. Fortunately, he has an omega with him who can help. Sixteen years later, the tables turn. And out of that second encounter, some realizations occurOlivia Fortuna is my original character. I own none of the rest of the characters.The first part of this story (chs. 1-2) takes place about 12-18 months before the events at Stanford in the pilot of the show (in case you were wondering, at the start of this story, Sam hasn't met Jess yet, and she doesn't make an appearance here). The rest of the story takes place 16-17 years later.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester/Original Character(s), Sam Winchester/Original Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. Rut Fever - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean Winchester, alpha, has the worst rut fever of his life. Fortunately, he has an omega with him who can help.

Olivia Fortuna had always been small. Born prematurely, no more than a handful in the NICU bassinette, she grew slowly. By the time she was 15, she was no more than 4’11” tall, and thin to boot. She knew, long before she presented, that it was likely she’d be an omega, so when that came true on her sixteenth birthday, it was really no surprise. 

Likewise, it was no surprise that her friends, brothers Sam and Dean Winchester, who had always been fairly large, both presented as alphas on their respective 16th birthdays, four years apart. Sam was two years younger than Olivia, Dean two years older, but she’d known both of them for as long as she could remember.

And now, at 23, still just shy of 5’ tall, she thought she’d always been in love with Sam – who by this point was 6’4”. Couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t had a crush on the younger brother. Ridiculous, but there it was. And that just made her current situation even worse.

All three of them, Olivia, Sam, and Dean, were hunters, had been even as teenagers, though Sam had decided to retire and go to college. Sometimes Olivia worked alone - which she knew made Dean, especially, worried – but she preferred to have at least one partner to watch her back. So, when Sam had gone off to Stanford, she and Dean had spent a lot of time together, when John Winchester, the boys’ father, hadn’t needed Dean for his own hunting missions. Somehow, they made good partners, without ever falling into the stereotypical alpha/omega designation crap. Dean trusted that Olivia knew her shit and could handle herself; they just agreed that it was better for any hunter not to hunt alone, if possible.

And somehow, in all the time Olivia and Dean had traveled the country hunting together, she had never been in heat, and he had never been in rut, while they were out hunting. Until now.

They had been out on what ought to have been an easy “salt-and-burn” haunting mission, but it hadn’t been easy, and it had taken forever to find the object that kept this particular spirit Earth bound. Nearly three months they’d been on the road together, traveling all over northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North and South Dakota – back and forth, East to West, North to South, and back again – finally finding and destroying the pocket watch that had caused all the problems in a small town in northern Wisconsin.

They had realized that they weren’t going to be able to get back to Singer’s Salvage Yard in South Dakota, where Dean had a room and Olivia had left her truck, from where they were, without staying at least one night in a motel. Already yawning before sunset, they had decided to stop, eat, and get a room in Madison. They crashed out early, each in their own twin bed.

Shortly before midnight, however, Olivia was awakened by the sound of Dean moaning quietly in the other bed, huddled under just a sheet, the blankets thrown off, facing away from her. She sat up quietly, trying to assess the issue without turning on a light, but when Dean suddenly whimpered, it became clear – his rut had started, and the fever, a bad one, had set in already.

Olivia rose and went to the small mini-fridge, retrieving a cold bottle of water. She poured about half of the cold liquid into a glass, then went into the bathroom and dumped the rest over a washcloth. Then she approached Dean, carrying the glass and the cloth carefully.

“Dean. C’mon, sit up, let’s get some water into you.” He trembled like a baby as she helped him sit up, and gulped down the water as she put the cold damp cloth around the back of his neck. He leaned into her, and she reached out to steady him.

“Liv, you gotta go,” Dean mumbled.

“Shhh. I’m not going anywhere, Dean.”

“You gotta, can’t be here now.”

“Shhh. Hush, Dean, it’ll be okay.”

“But I don’t wanna hurt you, Liv. In an hour, maybe less, I won’t be able to control it. You gotta go.”

“Let me get you some Tylenol, Dean, and some more water. We’ll get your fever down a bit and you’ll feel better.” Olivia started to rise, but Dean reached out and tugged her back down.

“Liv. Listen to me. It’s going to be a bad one. I will not be able to control myself. If you stay, I could forget myself, and hurt you, and I’d never forgive myself. Please. Liv. You gotta leave. Now.”

“Dean, I’m not leaving. I am going to get you that Tylenol. Then I’m gonna make a phone call or two, and then we’ll get you into a cold bath….but I’m not leaving you. You won’t hurt me, Dean. I trust you. It’ll be okay. Just hold on, and let’s get your fever down before you burn up.”

With that, Olivia rose, got another bottle of water and two extra-strength Tylenol tablets, opened the water, and crossed back to Dean’s side. “Here, now, Dean, take these.” She handed him the pills and the water, and watched as he swallowed them, then she went outside with her cell phone.

“C’mon, Sam, pick up, for fuck’s sake,” she whispered as the phone rang and rang in Palo Alto. She knew it was only just past 10 pm there, and it was unlikely that Sam was asleep already. Finally, after twelve rings, Sam picked up.

“Liv? What’s going on?”

“Sam, hey, Dean and I are in Madison. He just started his rut, and says it’s going to be a bad one. He’s already burning up, Sam. I can’t leave him, but he’s already saying I should go, he might hurt me.”

“Liv, if he’s saying that, you need to go. Leave him. Dean knows what he’s capable of in rut.”

“Sam, I can’t just leave him to go through this on his own. The fever is already spiking dangerously high.”

“Liv, I know you love Dean, but he’s like your brother. You can’t help him through a rut, especially not a bad one, without him claiming you, and you’d both be miserable with that hanging over you.”

“Sam. I expect he will mark me, but I won’t honor the claim. As soon as he’s safe to leave, I’ll go. But he’s not in any condition to be left alone. Look, I just wanted to tell you, while I still can….I love you, Sam.”

“I know that, Liv,” Sam said, sounding exasperated. Olivia could tell he wasn’t getting what she meant.

“No. Sam. I mean… _I’m in love with you_. Not like a sister. Not the way I love Dean. It’s always only been you for me, Sam, though I knew you didn’t feel the same. But I can’t let that stop me from helping Dean through this. He means too much to me to leave him when he’s this bad off.”

“Liv.”

“Sam.”

“Liv, I… I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“I know, Sam.”

“Liv, I… I love you, too,” Sam confessed, quietly.

“Oh.” Olivia blushed.

“Liv? Look, I love that you want to help Dean – but, honest to God, he won’t want you to stay. If he’s already telling you to go, you should go. Because if he marks you, and then you leave him, he will hunt for you. He won’t let you not honor the claim. And if he marks you….then….” Sam’s voice stuttered out.

“Then you won’t be able to. I know, Sam,” Olivia whispered.

“Liv…please,” Sam whispered back.

“I can’t just leave Dean, Sam. He’s burning up. I have to get back to him before the fever does actual damage….Look, I’ll try to just bring it down, and then go, but if it comes right down to it, Sam, you know I have to help Dean.”

“I know, Liv. I know.” Sam sounded as miserable as Olivia felt, but they both knew what was likely to happen next.

“I’ve gotta go, Sam. Goodbye.” Olivia cut the call before Sam could respond. She wiped her eyes, and ruffled her hair in frustration. “Dammit!”

Upon re-entering the motel room, Olivia could tell at once that the Tylenol hadn’t helped any. Dean was sweating profusely, his face deep red with flushing from the very high fever. “Shit, Dean,” Olivia whispered, knowing he was probably too far gone to hear her.

She crossed to his side, and slid his pajama pants off, ignoring his sudden nudity in a desperate bid to get him cooled off. She went into the bathroom and ran a cold bath, then returned to Dean.

“C’mon, Dean, let’s get you into the tub, we’ve gotta get this fever down, buddy,” she told him, as she forced his arm over her shoulders, making him sit, then stand, up. Already delirious, but rather malleable as a result, Dean followed along, and she was able to get him over to and into the tub, although he gasped as he stepped into the cold water.

“Sit down, Dean, get cool, baby, c’mon, let’s get the fever down, okay?” She kept up a steady commentary as she grabbed another washcloth and started sponging his face and neck with cold water, until the deep red flush started to fade to something better approximating Dean’s normal skin tone.

Dean opened his eyes, and looked at her. She smiled softly at him. “Hello. Welcome back.”

“Liv? What are you still doing here? Told you to go.”

“Hush. I told you, I’m not letting you die from a too-high fever. You’d nearly passed out before I got you in this bath.”

“Should’ve let me die, Liv. Don’ wanna hurt you.”

“Hush. You won’t hurt me, Dean. It’ll be okay.” Olivia spoke soothingly, although she knew that he might, in fact, hurt her, without ever meaning to do so.

“C’mon, Dean, let’s get you back to bed, okay? While you’re still conscious, huh?” Olivia helped him up, and out of the tub, not bothering to dry him off, as the heat of his body was taking care of that on its own, small wisps of steam rising from his skin, despite the cold temperature of the water.

Dean followed Olivia to the bed obediently, but once there, he smiled wolfishly, and grabbed the much smaller female around her waist and swung her into the bed next to him.

“I told you to leave, Liv.” His green eyes sparkled dangerously.

“Dean….”

“Shhh. You take care of me, Liv; I’ll take care of you, too.”

Olivia shuddered slightly, knowing that Dean was far into the rut-influenced mental state and not his normal self, but still helplessly aroused at the scent he was now putting out.

“Dean, I said that I would help you, but this isn’t what I meant. C’mon, now, let me up.”

“Shhh, Liv, I can smell that you want this as much as I do. Let me help you, baby. C’mon, sweetheart, I can make this so good for you.”

“Dean, stop. Let me up, c’mon, you need to drink some more water, let me get it for you.”

In response, Dean rolled over on top of Olivia, bracing himself above her on his elbows, and smiled seductively down at her. “I don’t think so, Liv. I think this is right where you wanna be. I know it’s where I wanna be. C’mon, honey, you wanna help me, right? Then help me.”

“Dean….”

“Tell me, Liv. Tell me it’s okay. Please, baby.” Dean gasped as the fever started to spike again. “Liv, seriously, I need you. I…I can’t…”

“Okay, Dean.” Olivia closed her eyes. She’d known that this could happen; it’s why she’d called Sam. She’d known that she would end up giving in to Dean. She cared too much about him to let him go through a dangerous rut alone.

“Oh, thank God, Liv.”

“But let me up for just a minute, okay, Dean? I need these clothes, can’t let you just rip’em off, and I need…the bathroom for a minute, okay? I’ll be right back.”

Happy now that Olivia had acquiesced, Dean rolled back off of her and let her get up from the bed. He closed his eyes, a smile on his face, which was rapidly reddening yet again.

Olivia disappeared into the bathroom. She stripped off her work clothes – jeans, flannel shirt, t-shirt – and looked in the mirror. She ruffled her hair in frustration again, but knew that she was going to go right back to Dean. She used the toilet, washed her hands, and threw some water on her own face, then went back into the bedroom. She looked at Dean, and gasped at the dark red color of his skin. She went to the mini-fridge for yet another cold bottle of water, and this time just dumped it directly onto him, desperate to bring the fever down. Dean came to again with a gasp from the shock of it, but then smiled seductively at her, as he recognized that she was now in just her underwear, and he was still naked.

“Think you’re still a little overdressed, there, Liv.”

Olivia blushed, but looked back at Dean steadily. “Dean. Are you going to be able to…” her voice gave out.

“Yeah, Liv. I’m good. Just…needing, here. Needing you, Liv. Please, baby, come back to bed?”

Olivia sighed and slipped back into bed next to Dean. “Okay, Dean. I’m here.”

Dean rolled toward Olivia and slipped the bra straps down her arms. “Is this okay, Liv? You sure? Be sure. Because I don’t think I can turn back once this starts.”

“I’m sure, Dean. It’s okay.”

“And if I mark you, Liv? I don’t mean to, but…I might not be able to stop myself. What then?”

“It’s okay, Dean. Do what you need to do,” Olivia smiled at him, a little sadly, but knowing it was the only possible thing to say.

Dean smiled back, and reached around her to undo the bra clasp, drawing the lacy object away from her gingerly. He dropped his head and licked once at each nipple. He looked up at her face as a quiet gasp escaped from her lips, and grinned. “I do want it to be good for you, Liv. I’m gonna do my best, okay? Not sure how good that’ll be, once we get going, but I swear I’ll try, baby.”

Olivia smiled and nodded, not trusting her voice, but wanting to be reassuring, knowing the alpha already wasn’t truly in his right mind, and appreciating that he had enough sanity left to even say that much.

Dean scooted down and drew Olivia’s panties down her legs. She closed her eyes.

He scooted back up and kissed her softly. “Liv?”

“Yes, Dean. I’m here.”

“I know, Liv. Want you to know…appreciate it, what you’re doing, not leaving, but you…you really…you really should’ve left, Liv,” Dean gasped, the fever spiking again and starting to steal the little sanity he had left. He slipped between Olivia’s legs, again bracing himself above her on his elbows to keep most of his weight off of her chest. He bent to kiss her again, and just the tip of his cock pressed against her, slipping just barely between her outer labia, as she kissed him back.

“Dean, it’s okay, it’s okay, please, do what you need to do, Dean,” Olivia whispered, stroking his arms with her fingertips, as he moved against her skin, trying to arouse her. Taking her at her word, he pressed forward and slipped inside of her. She gasped as she felt him enter her, squirming a little to improve the angle.

“Liv?” Dean moaned her name again and again as he started to move, slowly at first, but then building to a steady rhythm. He kissed her again, then dropped his lips to her neck. Olivia whimpered, knowing that Dean was close to losing control. “Liv? Please? Say it’s okay, Liv, dear God, please, say this is okay?”

“Shhh, Dean, it’s okay, it’s fine, just do what you need to do, it’s good, shhh, it’s okay.”

He shuddered above her, his mouth opening, his teeth gently clasping into the space between her neck and shoulder, clearly trying desperately to keep a grip on sanity enough not to mark her, but losing the fight.

“Shhh, Deah, it’s okay, go ahead, Dean, do it. Mark me, Dean, it’s okay.” Olivia trembled beneath him, even as she whispered constant reassurance to the alpha.

Dean bit down slowly. He surged inside of her at the same time, gasping against her neck as he came. Olivia found her release as well, crying out just once at being bitten.

Dean collapsed on top of her, but quickly rolled away to avoid crushing her beneath him. Olivia watched as the fever receded and sanity returned, for the moment, to Dean’s clear green eyes.

“Shit, Liv. I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“No need, Dean, it’s fine,” she stated.

Dean lay back, still slightly flushed, eyes closed with shame.

“Dean, stop. I told you, it’s fine, truly.” Olivia curled up against him, and stroked his cheek gently. She knew the self-destructive tendencies of Dean Winchester very well, and did not intend to let him think badly of himself for doing something he’d had to do.

“It’s not fine, Liv. Dammit. I told you to go. I told you I’d hurt you.”

“You didn’t hurt me, Dean, you were very gentle. Really, I’m fine,” Olivia told him, and then reached up to kiss him softly. “Truly, Dean, we’re good, here, and if you go down the spiral into self-blame when this was a two-way street, you’re just gonna piss me off.”

Dean shook his head, eyes still closed.

“Dean. Look at me.” Olivia stroked his cheek again. “Please? Open your eyes, Dean.”

Dean reluctantly opened his eyes, but stared at the ceiling.

“Dean. C’mon, Dean, stop it. Look at me,” Olivia insisted.

Finally, Dean did as she asked and turned to look at her.

“Dean, it’s fine. You did what you had to do. I knew you were going to have to do it. I’m fine. If I wasn’t fine, I would have left you to burn up. But I couldn’t do that, because I love you. You’re my best friend, Dean. I could never have left you alone. You know that. Now, stop with the guilt, there’s no reason for it. It’s okay, Dean. Truly. Accept that. Please.”

Dean smiled, but at the same time, a single tear slid from one eye and down his cheek. “Thank you, Liv.”

Olivia smiled back, then frowned as she realized that Dean was starting to flush again. “Again, Dean? So soon?”

Dean looked startled. “Not usually, no, Liv, I swear.”

Olivia put the back of her hand to Dean’s forehead. He was burning up again, and his skin was again becoming steadily darker and darker red with heat.

“Shit, Dean, you already took as much Tylenol as I feel safe giving you. What else can we do? Another cold bath?”

“Don’t think it’ll help, Liv, no more than the last one did. I told you this was going to be a bad rut, baby. I didn’t know it’d be this bad, though. You should go, Liv.” Dean’s teeth began to chatter as the fever gave him chills.

“Dean, I already told you, I’m not leaving you alone with this. This high a fever could kill you, or give you brain damage, if we don’t bring it down. If that means letting you have me, so be it. I’m not going, and that’s final.”

“Liv….”

“No, Dean. Shut up.”

The alpha hmmphed at being told to shut up by the omega female, but clearly she was determined to stay; who was he to say no? The desire was already taking hold, telling him that since he’d already marked her, she was his omega, now. He smiled at her wolfishly, and she got a good whiff of “happy, very aroused, very determined, alpha” just as he rolled back over above her again.

“Dean…?”

“Shhh, Liv. Let me have you again, please, omega, I gotta….oh, Liv, I’m sorry, I can’t stop, Liv!” Dean murmured into her neck as he slid between her thighs again, sliding immediately into her, his cock larger than it had been not fifteen minutes earlier. Olivia cried out softly as he slid inside, knowing he couldn’t help it, but whimpering as it felt a bit like being split in half.

“Sorry, Liv, I can’t….Oh, God, Liv, ahhhhhhhhhhh,” Dean spilled himself inside of her almost at once, trembling in her arms.

“Shhh, Dean, it’s okay,” Olivia continued to reassure the alpha, stroking his arms softly, staring up at the ceiling as she lay trapped beneath him. “It’s okay, Dean, I’m here, we’re good, it’s fine, really.”

Olivia gasped as Dean grew large again within her almost immediately, this time swelling into a knot that lodged firmly within her. He growled softly against her neck, the inner wolf coming to the fore, as he began to move again. She realized now why he’d been so adamant that she leave, but knew that she would never have forgiven herself had he been eaten up by the fever, so she continued to whisper to him softly, not knowing if he even heard her anymore.

Dean cried out in triumph as he reached his third peak in less than thirty minutes, but whimpered almost in pain as he felt himself hardening yet again immediately. He clutched Olivia, holding onto her like a lifeline, all semblance of sanity gone as he stroked into her again and again, never able to pull out altogether, rubbing his cheek against her neck, desperate to scent-mark her, as well as bite-mark her, his teeth sinking into her in the same spot as before, again, and again, gently, but definitely meant to mark.

In the scant seconds between orgasm and re-arousal, Dean whispered apologies, then, as the fever took over, endearments, words of possession and lust dropped from his lips to Olivia’s ears. Over and over, as the pattern recurred throughout the night, almost unceasingly. It was dawn before the fever finally broke, and full sanity returned to Dean Winchester.

Dean looked down at Olivia, aghast, even as she smiled softly up at him. He slowly and carefully withdrew from her, now that the swelling that had kept them entwined had finally gone down.

“Oh, my God, Liv. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want…I didn’t mean…. Shit.”

Dean couldn’t bear to see her smile, hear her reassurances, as he looked at the mass of bruising on her neck and breasts where he’d bitten her, her thighs where his own had pounded against hers unceasingly for hours.

“Liv, oh, Liv, I’m so sorry,” he said again and again.

“Dean, stop it. I’ll be fine. I’m a little stiff, a little sore, but it’s just bruises. I’ve had a lot worse, you know I have.”

“Liv, you need a doctor. I need to take you to the ER, for fuck’s sake. I raped you, Liv.”

“You did not! Dean Winchester, that is a vile thing to say! Stop it!”

“Liv…My God, you are a mass of bruises, and I am a horrible human being. Get dressed, we’re going to the hospital.”

“No. Stop it. This was NOT rape, Dean. It was consensual. I told you that repeatedly. Just get that thought out of your head. You didn’t do anything wrong, Dean. And I do not need a doctor. Just a hot shower, and some breakfast.”

Dean still looked guilty, and Olivia knew that he was going to continue to beat himself up, but that was just Dean. She reached over, turned his face to hers, and kissed him, then got up and disappeared into the bathroom.

Dean heard the shower running, and sighed. He reached for the cell phone on the bedside table, and was about to call Sam, when he realized it was only about 3 am in Palo Alto, and his brother wouldn’t appreciate being awakened. He set the phone back down, and scrubbed his face with his hands, startled when the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Dean?”

“Sam? What are you doing up?”

“What are you doing, answering Liv’s phone?”

“Why are you calling Liv’s phone?” Dean looked at the phone, realizing that it was, in fact, Olivia’s, and not his own.

“Um, I’ve been worried. She called me earlier, said you were in a bad way, but she didn’t intend to leave. Did she?”

“Um…no. She should have, but no.”

“Shit, Dean, tell me you didn’t….”

Dean let his silence speak for him.

“DEAN! Tell me you didn’t rape her.”

“She says I didn’t, but I feel…shit, Sam, I feel like I did.”

“What, you were so out of your head, you don’t even know what you did? Whether you fucked her, or not?”

“I definitely had sex with her, Sam, shit, I marked her, probably a dozen times, in as many places. The question is whether or not it was consensual. She says it was, but I don’t see how it could have been, really. I want to take her to the ER, Sam, there’re bruises all over her, but she refuses to go.”

“Dammit, Dean, how could you?” Sam roared.

“Sam, I was completely out of my head! The rut fever took over! I wasn’t sane until about twenty minutes ago.”

“Where’s Liv now? I want to speak to her.”

“She’s in the shower, Sam. Like I said, she refused to go to the ER, insisted all she needed was a shower and some breakfast. She _smiled_ at me, for fuck’s sake. She said she was okay, it wasn’t rape, it was consensual, but….dammit, Sam, I _know_ I hurt her.” Dean’s voice broke at the end.

The shower turned off.

“She’s getting out of the shower, Sam. I’ll let you speak to her.” Dean called to Olivia, “Liv? Sam’s on the phone for you.”

“Be there in a sec,” she called back.

“Dean, I swear to God, if she doesn’t talk me down, I’m about to fly to Madison to kill you.”

“I’ll let you, Sam. I feel awful.”

Olivia came out of the bathroom in a sweatshirt and a pair of shorts. She took the phone from Dean.

“Hey, Sam.”

“Liv, are you sure you’re okay? Dean says he was rougher than he intended, and he wants to take you to the ER,” Sam told her.

“Sam, I’m a little bruised, but I’ve had a lot worse, I just need to get some food in me, and I’ll be fine, I promise. I don’t need a doctor, Dean’s just headed down a shame spiral because he couldn’t control the inner wolf, for fuck’s sake.”

“You sure, Liv?” She knew Sam and Dean were both concerned, so Olivia didn’t roll her eyes.

“Sam, I swear, I’m fine.”

“Liv, about the markings….” Olivia gestured to Dean that she was going to step outside, and although concerned, he waved her out, respecting her need for privacy.

“I told you what I intend to do about that, Sam,” she said, once Dean could no longer hear her half of the conversation.

“Liv, if it really was consensual…don’t leave him.”

“Sam.”

“Liv.”

“I have to, Sam. I had to do what I did last night, but I also have to do what comes next. I’ll stay with him at least as far as back to Bobby’s, since my truck’s there, but then….”

“Liv, he’ll come after you.”

“No, he won’t, Sam. He won’t know where to go. And neither will you.”

“Liv, please.”

“No. Sam. This is just how it has to be. Goodbye, Sam.”

“Liv….” Olivia cut the call. She took a deep breath. She closed her eyes, and let it out, slowly. Then she opened her eyes, and stuck her head back inside the room.

“Dean? Breakfast?”

“Yeah, Liv, I’m ready.”

She stepped over to the passenger-side door of Baby, Dean’s ’67 Chevy Impala, and waited as Dean stepped out, locked the motel room door, and came over to the driver-side door. They both got in, and shut the car doors in unison, then grinned at each other as they always did when that happened.

“C’mon, Dean, I need coffee. Let’s find a decent diner, hmm?”

“Yeah, okay, Liv. Maybe we should buy you a scarf, though.”

“Hmm. Yeah, this might not look like your ordinary run-of-the-mill hickey, huh?”

“Shit, Liv, it looks like you were attacked. Anyone sees that, they’re going to think either that I abused you, or that you were mauled by an animal.” Dean’s guilt took over once again as he studied the bruises around the bite mark.

“Well, I wasn’t mauled by an animal, and you didn't abuse me. I don’t have any turtlenecks with me. So, it’s either a scarf, or I just admit I’ve been claimed.”

“Shit, Liv. I wouldn’t claim you against your will. I know you don’t want that.”

“Dean, you absolutely would claim me, and you and I both know it.” Olivia laughed at his attempt to deny it, but she was wondering what he'd say next.

He looked sheepish for a minute, then had to agree. "Yeah, I probably would." He’d always found Olivia beautiful, the petite female omega had always attracted him. He’d just never intended to do anything about it, since he’d always considered her a sister. But now….

He turned into the parking lot of a strip mall. Olivia looked in vain for a restaurant. Dean pointed to a thrift shop.

“I’m gonna run in and get whatever they have for a scarf to cover that, then I’ll be right back.”

Olivia smiled; Dean was her best friend, and she did love him. But she wasn’t in love with him, and she wasn’t about to let him claim her, markings or no. As she’d told Sam, she’d get Dean back to Bobby’s, and she’d even let him _think_ she was his until his rut fever was completely over, but then, she’d be disappearing. And she knew just how to do it.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I personally think Dean has the right of it, but Olivia has valid points as well. Olivia consented, but she didn't know all of what she was consenting to, so technically, it was non-con. But Dean wasn't in his right mind due to the fever, so his guilt is a tad excessive. 
> 
> Dean's agreement re: wanting to claim Olivia is going to be a problem later.


	2. Rut Fever, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Car trouble means another night on the road for Dean and Olivia. Dean's fever returns at midnight, and things get both better and worse.

After breakfast, Dean and Olivia returned to the motel long enough to pack up their gear. They stopped at a gas station quickly to fill Baby’s tank with gas, and to get more bottled water and some snacks, and then hit the road. Although Dean usually preferred backroads to interstate highways, he wanted to get as far as he could before nightfall, so he went straight to I-94/90 west, figuring he could stay on that to where I-90 broke off in western Wisconsin, then stay on that straight through to Sioux Falls. It was about 9 am now, and it was about a six and a half hour drive, straight through; they might even make it to Bobby’s before sunset.

He glanced over at Olivia about ten minutes after hitting the highway, and realized that she had fallen asleep already, clearly worn out from the intense sex of the night before. He swore softly, not wanting to wake her, but feeling desperately guilty. He gunned the engine.

***

Dean’s plan fell apart about two and a half hours into the drive, in Witoka, Minnesota, when Baby developed a knock in the engine, and he had to pull over into a rest stop. Still trying not to wake Olivia, he raised the hood and started looking for the problem.

Olivia yawned, and opened her eyes as she realized the car had stopped moving. She looked around for Dean, then realized he must be on the other side of the raised hood, looking at the engine. She stretched a little, and winced as she felt what seemed like every muscle protest. She knew she needed to get out and walk around, so she pushed open the door, and stepped out of the car.

Dean heard the door open and shut, and steeled himself to try to not apologize again. Though he knew he’d want to, he also knew that if he kept telling Olivia how sorry he was, she was likely to slap him upside the head. She stepped around the side of the car, and looked him up and down.

“Dean? Everything okay?” she asked.

“Shit, Liv, no. _Nothing’s_ okay, and now Baby’s acting up on top of everything else.”

Olivia smiled softly, then reached out and cupped his chin. “Dean. Look at me.”

He glanced up and met her eyes.

“It’s okay, Dean.”

“Liv, I hurt you. That’s not okay.”

“You didn’t hurt me much, Dean, and you couldn’t help what you did. I know you’d never mean to hurt me.”

“But I _did_ hurt you, Liv. _Meant_ to, no. But I did.”

“Dean, if you hadn’t been in your rut fever, if we’d just suddenly decided to become friends with benefits and had sex, and you’d bruised me accidentally, would you be this worked up over it? C’mon.”

“Not the same thing, Liv.”

“That’s right, because when you’re in your rut fever, Dean, you’re not you. Your inner wolf comes out, and you cannot control it. No one can. It’s purely instinctual, you do what you must. And despite that, despite quite literally being out of control, Dean, you apologized, over and over and over, in between thanking me outrageously, and telling me that you loved me, that you wanted me, and showing me just how much you meant that. And you think that I should be wounded by that because of a few bruises? Nuh uh, Dean. Now, maybe it went on longer than I expected, but I didn’t object last night, and I’m not objecting now. I knew what I was getting myself into when I stayed with you. And quite honestly, I’m upset that you think I could have possibly done anything differently. Now, I’m gonna go up and use the bathroom, and get in a bit of a walk to stretch my legs out while you’re fixing the car, and when I come back, I don’t want to hear again about you being sorry. You got me?”

Dean nodded, not looking up at her, still ashamed, but knowing she wouldn’t let him express it further. “Okay, Liv. You get on, and I’ll just get back to workin’ on Baby, so we can get back on the road.”

Olivia nodded and walked off. He glanced up at her back as she walked away, and winced as he saw how stiffly she moved. “ _Shit_ ,” he murmured.

He resumed working on the engine, wanting to get back on the road as soon as Olivia was ready.

For her part, Olivia had meant that speech. She didn’t want Dean to feel guilty, and there wasn’t anything she’d have done differently. Just because she meant to leave Dean behind once they got to Bobby’s, meant to dishonor the claim he’d started to stake the night before by marking her skin, didn’t mean she didn’t care about Dean. He truly was her best friend, and she did love him…like her brother.

But she was in love with Sam, and couldn’t let Dean think that his claim was valid as far as she was concerned. This was strictly a one-time, help a friend out, type of situation. She was not about to consider herself permanently mated to Dean, marked or not. And once Dean’s rut fever was completely over, they were back to Bobby’s, and she had her truck, she was gone. She wasn’t the “needy omega” type, no, not her. She didn’t need Dean Winchester, and she certainly didn’t need him thinking that she belonged to him, just because she’d helped him get through a dangerously high rut fever. Pfft.

***

It had taken longer than Dean liked to get Baby purring again, but they were back on the road by 4 pm. But that meant they still had a four and a half hour drive to Bobby’s, and wouldn’t arrive there until well after dark, even if they drove straight through. While Dean often drove all night to and from hunts, he and Olivia were both already exhausted, and his fever could come back any time after dark, although it usually did wait until midnight. It was just being prudent to start looking for a suitable motel with a decent restaurant nearby, that’s all.

Olivia didn’t protest when Dean pulled off the highway in Blue Earth, Minnesota, about two hours after getting back on the road. The snacks had all been eaten and she was hungry, wanted caffeine desperately, and needed sleep badly, even after napping in the car. She knew Dean was exhausted and needed to rest, too. What was one more night on the road? They’d get to Sioux Falls tomorrow, and if she got any decent rest tonight, she might even be able to sneak out and get on the road in her own truck, away from Dean, tomorrow night.

They spotted a Biggerson’s soon after getting off the highway, and pulled into the parking lot. Olivia headed straight for the bathroom while Dean got them a table. Once Olivia came out, Dean headed in to use the facilities, after telling Olivia to order him a cheeseburger and fries, with coffee.

Olivia ordered for both of them, and made sure to ask the waitress for a large glass of water for each of them, as well. Much as they both wanted and needed caffeine, coffee was dehydrating, and Dean’s fever could come back soon.

Dean returned to the table and the waitress brought their food. They both dug in, not bothering to talk. They ate quickly, and though Dean considered pie, he decided, for perhaps the first time in his entire life, that he needed a nap more. He paid, and they headed back out to the car.

Dean found a motel, and before going in, quietly asked Olivia if she was sure she wanted to share a room with him, or should he get two? She smiled softly, and kissed him gently. “I’ll share, Dean. I told you, it’s fine.”

They got their duffel bags from the trunk, spoke with the desk clerk, got their key, and went to the room, which was just off the main lobby, so there was no need to move Baby.

Dean set down his bag, and ran his hand over his face, blinking.

“Dean, get some sleep. You need it.”

Olivia put a bottle of water on his bedside table, and held the covers up so he could slide into the bed fully dressed, then tucked him in gently. She gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek, then took her bag into the bathroom and closed the door. The last thing Dean heard before falling into a deep sleep was the shower running.

Olivia took a very long, very hot, shower. Her muscles were still protesting last night’s prolonged exertions, and the walk at the rest stop had done nothing to ease the bruising. After the shower, she dug out her tube of icy-hot gel and tried to find as many bruises as she could to coat liberally with the stuff. She shivered, then sighed with relief as she felt the slime starting to work.

She put on her snuggy warm pink flannel pj pants and a hot pink t-shirt, then carried her duffel back out into the bedroom. She set the bag on the table, then glanced over at Dean, smiling fondly as she realized he was already sound asleep.

She pulled out the cell phone and dialed Sam’s number. Sam picked up on the first ring, meaning he’d been anticipating another call.

“Liv? Where are you guys? Bobby’s worried, he thought you’d get to Sioux Falls today.”

“Ugh, I’ll call Bobby next, Sam. We’re in Blue Earth, Minnesota. There was some car trouble, nothing Dean couldn’t fix on his own, but it took awhile. We ate, then got a motel room, and he’s already zonked out, here.”

“Liv, seriously, I know you said you were okay this morning, but Dean admitted he’d been really rough. What happened, hon?”

“Sam…. Look, it was a really dangerous fever, Dean wasn’t….”

“Liv. Don’t tell me that he wasn’t in his right mind. I already know that. What. Did. He. Do?”

Olivia sighed. “He marked me the first time, Sam, within the first five minutes. He came three times in the first thirty minutes, knotted me the second time, then stayed hard, despite repeated orgasms, for the next five hours.”

“How many times, Liv?”

“Sam….”

“Dammit, Liv, how many times?”

“I lost count at 45, Sam,” Olivia whispered.

“Jesus!” Sam exploded. “Liv, you get out of that room. You cannot stay with him again tonight.”

“Sam….”

“No, Liv, don’t tell me it’s okay. It’s NOT okay. He didn’t pull out for a full five hours? Not once? He didn’t get you water? Didn’t drink anything himself? Did you come even once? He sure as hell didn’t even know, did he?”

“Sam….”

“Shit, Liv, he said he was rough, but that’s unconscionable! I’m gonna kill him!”

“No, Sam.”

“Liv. Please. Please don’t stay in that room with him tonight. Please don’t let him do that to you again. I’m begging you, Liv. He’s my brother, and I love him, but that shit’s not right, and I won’t have you taking that kind of crap from him.”

“Sam, he’s sleeping like a baby right now.”

“Yeah, but at midnight he won’t be, Livvy. His fever will spike again, and you’ll feel sorry for him, and you’ll smell his fear and his need and his desperation, and the claim he set last night – Jesus, Liv, he told me he’d marked you in a dozen places! – won’t let you get away from him, then. Go now, while you still can, please.”

Sam pleaded with Olivia to be safe, to go, but she refused to leave Dean, to let Dean suffer alone through another dangerous fever like he’d had the night before. Finally, Sam gave up on getting her to leave, and just asked her to please be sure she drank a lot of water. “I love you, Olivia. If you won’t leave, at least make sure you don’t die from dehydration, okay?”

Olivia smiled at Sam’s obvious concern. “I will, Sam. Look, I need some sleep myself, okay? I took a nap in the car, but I need to lie down here, so I’m gonna go, call Bobby so he won’t worry, and then sack out for a bit. Good night.”

“Call me in the morning so I know you’re okay, please. Night, Liv,” Sam sighed and ended the call.

Olivia sipped from a bottle of water, then dialed Bobby’s number. Bobby also picked up on the first ring.

“Olivia? Why the hell aren’t the two of you back here yet?”

“Hey, Bobby, we had some minor car trouble. Baby’s fine, nothing Dean couldn’t fix, but it took awhile, so we pulled off in Blue Earth, Minnesota, and got some food and a room here. We’ll be back in Sioux Falls tomorrow.”

“Sam is out of his mind, Liv.”

“I just spoke with Sam, Bobby, I called him first,” Olivia assured the gruff older man.

“How’s Dean?”

“Sleeping, at the moment.”

“Uh huh. If you have half a brain in that head of yours, girl, you’ll get out of there now, while you can.”

“Bobby, I can’t leave Dean. His fever spiked so high last night it was frightening. He passed out twice. He can’t be alone, here.”

“Olivia Fortuna, your mother would kill me if she knew what I know.”

“Well, I guess we’re all fortunate that she passed on years ago, then, Bobby.”

“Yeah, yeah. Look, you be careful. I wanna see you two idjits tomorrow, as soon as possible. You hear?”

“I hear, Bobby, loud and clear. Look, I’m gonna lie down here for a bit and try to get some more sleep, okay? I’ll call you from the road in the morning so you know when to expect us, and if anything comes up, I’ll call again.”

“All right, Liv. I don’t like the situation, but you’ll do as you think best, no matter what I say about it,” Bobby grumped. Olivia smiled. She knew he only growled because he cared.

“Talk to you soon, Bobby. Night.”

“Night.” Olivia ended the call, and set the cell phone and an unopened bottle of water on her bedside table. She finished off the bottle she’d been sipping from, scrubbed her fingers through her hair, blinked owlishly, and slid into her bed, glancing over at Dean. Seeing that he was still sound asleep and hadn’t moved a muscle, she decided to follow suit, and shut her eyes. She was out before she could even think to….

***

It seemed like a bare two seconds had gone by before Olivia was awakened by the sound of the shower running, but a glance at the clock indicated that it was now just after midnight, so it had actually been more like five hours. She slipped out of bed, and went over by the bathroom door.

“Dean? You all right in there?” she called.

“Liv? The fever…is spiking…again…. Could you come in, please?” Dean’s teeth were chattering from the fever chills and the cold shower he was taking in an attempt to get the fever down to manageable levels as Olivia entered the bathroom. She saw at once that his skin had again turned dark red from his internal temperature being far too high.

“You take any Tylenol yet, Dean?” she asked. She clicked her tongue when he shook his head no. “I’ll get you some, but let’s get you out of that shower now, babe.”

Dean turned off the water, and she helped him out of the tub. She again didn’t bother with a towel, and he was dry by the time they had crossed to the bed. She got him in under just a sheet and went to get the Tylenol. Meanwhile, Dean opened the bottle of water she’d set out earlier and sipped a bit.

Olivia brought the pills over to him, and watched as he swallowed them down. He looked up at her. “Liv. Go.”

She shook her head. “No, Dean. I won’t leave you alone with this.”

“Liv, please, I…I can’t hurt you again. I don’t even know all of what I did last night, but I know I left bruises on you, just about everywhere. You need to _go_.”

“No, Dean. Hush now, slide over, let me sit down here.” She waited until Dean obeyed, then sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at him. She used the back of her hand to feel his forehead. So far, it didn’t seem unmanageable, maybe a little less hot than the night before. She wasn’t fooled into thinking the overall experience would be any less intense, but she’d managed, and would again. This was Dean, her best friend. She wasn’t leaving him alone. “Scoot over a little more, Dean, I’m gonna slide in here next to you.” Dean slid over, but only because he was still having chills. As soon as she was lying next to him, he snuggled up to her.

“Just let me hold you, okay, Liv? So…cold….” He murmured, teeth still chattering.

“Yeah, Dean, I’m here.” She snuggled back against his chest, knowing that he was actually far warmer than she, but wanting to give comfort where she could.

Dean reached down and flipped the blankets over both of them, then burrowed his nose in her neck, wrapping his arms around her, holding her close. He inhaled deeply, smelling her concern for him, her contentment at being warm and held gently, her beginnings of arousal, and…her fear. He sighed softly. “Shit, Liv, I can smell that you’re scared.”

“It’s okay, Dean. Yes, you marked me, you bruised me up pretty good last night. But that’s it, and tonight won’t be any worse. I’m not leaving you, Dean.”

Dean dropped a kiss gently over the bite mark on her neck. “Need you…Liv…need you badly.”

“I know, Dean. I’m here, babe.”

Olivia turned and slid in the sheets until she was on her back, looking up at Dean. She smiled, and reached up to kiss him. He followed her down into the pillow, deepening the kiss, humming a little as his arousal stirred with the fever. “Gettin’ hot again, Liv,” he whispered against her lips, but Olivia could already feel the heat emanating from Dean’s body as he pressed against her.

She was determined to make this as easy as possible for both of them, so she simply spread her legs and wrapped them around Dean’s hips. He ground into her a little, but he was still fully clothed, and she was in her pjs, so that wasn’t all that effective. He looked down at her and whimpered softly, and she grinned.

“Need you, Liv. Need you. Please? Can I?”

“Yeah, babe.”

Dean tossed the blankets, and slipped from the bed. He trembled from the instant chills, but managed to strip off his t-shirt and jeans without assistance. For her part, Olivia sat up in bed and removed her own t-shirt, but he stopped her from shimmying out of the pj pants. “Let me do that, darlin’,” he told her. He sat down on the edge of the bed to remove his boxer briefs, simply unable to continue to stand further. Olivia reached out and touched his thigh gently, and he smiled at her, a simple smile, lacking the seductive or possessive quality of the night before. Here, now, they were simply best friends again.

He rose again and moved to the end of the bed. “Okay, Liv, can you lift your hips for me, baby?” he asked, as he tugged on the flannel pj pants. She obeyed, and he pulled them off of her gently, then crawled up between her legs to nestle down above her. He gently kissed her lips, then her nose, and she blushed. “Oh, Liv, if you can still blush with me after last night, maybe I need to try harder.” She laughed at that, and he grinned at her. “Wanna try to make tonight better for you, Liv. Gonna try not to space out, but…can’t promise.”

“I know, Dean. It’s all right. You do what you must. We’ll make it work.” She assured him gently, trying to make her scent reassuring as well. Dean nosed at her neck again, inhaling, and this time found no hint of fear. He reached down between her legs and fingered her lightly, giving her the foreplay she’d been denied the night before, and was rewarded by a soft moan.

Dean licked her neck gently, and sucked softly on her earlobe, then moved down to suckle gently at her nipples, first her right, then her left. Olivia began to writhe beneath him, and he chuckled softly. “Easy, baby. Easy. I’m trying to take this slow, here.”

In response, Olivia once again wrapped her legs around Dean’s hips, but he refused the immediate temptation, in favor of continuing to gently lave her breasts with his talented tongue. “Wanna do you right, tonight, Liv. Wanna try, at least. Make it better than before. Still so sorry.” Dean murmured apologies and sweet nothings, whispered words of love, as he continued to gently finger her between her legs and suckle gently on her nipples. Olivia squirmed, whimpering, as he held her firmly in place beneath him, dismantling any remaining defenses she had, as he wormed his way into her soul, trying to claim her truly, as he knew he hadn’t the night before. “Shhh, omega, let me give you this. You gave me so much last night, Liv, let go, let me give you this.”

He slipped a finger up inside of her, continuing to rub his thumb gently over her clit, and Olivia’s hips rose of their own accord to take it deeper. Dean smiled, and added a second finger, whispering words of encouragement in her ear. “Come for me, Livvy. C’mon, baby, want to see you lose your mind, want to know I did _something_ right here.” Olivia cried out, gasping for breath, straining against Dean’s hand as he continued to play her body gently, but inexorably, toward release.

“Dean! Please!”

“Yes, baby. You can do it, Liv. C’mon, baby.”

Olivia reached the breaking point and screamed as she shattered helplessly into a million pieces, flying apart into the universe, and letting Dean put her back together. Dean smiled against her skin, and gave her a moment to catch her breath. “Good girl.”

Dean reached for the bottled water, and uncapped it, holding it to Olivia’s lips for her to sip some water. “I know I did things all wrong last night, Liv. I don’t want to repeat those mistakes. I’m hoping that I can stay strong tonight for you.” He sipped some water as well, then put the bottle back on the nightstand.

Olivia reached up and stroked Dean’s cheek gently. “Good start, D.”

He laughed. “I owed you at least that much, and probably a hell of a lot more, Liv.” Olivia saw that his skin was getting darker.

“It’s coming, isn’t it, Dean?”

“Yeah, baby. The fever’s spiking. Shit, I’m sorry, Liv.”

“It’s okay, babe.”

“Need you….Liv….need….” Dean’s teeth resumed their chattering, hard enough that he could no longer speak, and Olivia reached down to pull the blankets back up to cover them. Dean helped her get them into place, then moaned softly. “Please, Liv…can I…please…?”

“Yes, Dean.” Olivia kissed Dean’s cheek as he slid slowly into her. He moved slowly, gently, deliberately trying not to build the pace yet, simply stroking in and out, letting Olivia get used to the feel of him within her again. He scented her again, and was relieved to still find no trace of the earlier fear, just smelling “happy-contented-feeling-pretty-damn-good” from her. He kissed her gently, and smiled as she kissed him back. He felt her hips move, adjusting the angle slightly, and slid out slightly to accommodate her, then slid gently back in, finding it easier to go deeper now. He picked up the pace slightly, gasping as the fever spiked higher still, but still determined to make it good for her. He felt her moving with him, and licked at her neck approvingly. She moaned softly, and he kissed her nipples.

“Still…good…Liv?” he asked.

“Yes. Oh, yes, Dean, so good,” Olivia responded.

He moved a little faster still, and was delighted when she did the same. “Good girl, so good, oh, Liv, oh, ohhhh!” Dean cried out as he reached the peak, and Olivia trembled beneath him as she let go again as well.

Dean slid out, and moved to the side, but snuggled up against Olivia and held her gently.

“You okay, Dean?” she asked.

“More than, Liv.” He grabbed the water again, gave Olivia a sip, sipped himself, and put it back. He lay still, just wanting to enjoy the closeness. Olivia reached back and took his hand in hers, and he twined his fingers with hers.

After a moment, however, Olivia felt his temperature rising again. She looked back and was alarmed to find that Dean’s dark red flush had returned, and his green eyes were glassy. “Dean?”

“Liv…need… sorry…have to…”

“Okay, Dean, it’s okay, shhh.”

Dean rolled back on top of Olivia, and immediately sank back into her depths, holding there. She could feel that he was larger, as he had been last night, and knew the moment he knotted deep within her. She whimpered softly, knowing that he was beyond recognizing her fear, now. She tried stroking his arms, wanting to reconnect with the man above her, but the inner wolf was in control of Dean, and he leaned down and licked at her neck, long broad strokes of his hot tongue against her skin. Then she gasped as his teeth again sank into her in exactly the same place, the crease of neck and shoulder, trying not to squirm as he made the mark permanent.

He rose up from the bite, staring down at her triumphantly with no hint of recognition beyond knowing that she was his omega. She knew that she was no longer Liv to him. And then he began to move within her, not sliding in and out, but grinding the knot deeper and deeper, painfully, until she was splayed helplessly open beneath him, tears streaming down her face. He whispered, “You’re mine, now. Mine!” and came so long, with so loud a shout, that Olivia’s fear returned, times ten. He scented it, and laughed. “MY omega.”

He ground deeper and Olivia cried out. He grasped her wrists and held them in place next to her head on the pillow. “You belong to me, now. Now and always!” Olivia whimpered. “Say it, omega. Tell me that you’re mine.”

“I’m yours, Dean,” Olivia whispered.

“Not Dean. ALPHA,” he commanded.

“I’m yours, alpha,” Olivia whispered, her face almost as hot as Dean’s, from exertion, pain, and shame.

The wolf in human form above her laughed triumphantly, almost cruelly, and continued to grind into Olivia painfully. He leaned down and bit at her nipples, her neck, her earlobes, laughing as she twisted, trying to escape his teeth. Olivia realized that Dean had yet to reach his second orgasm, and wondered how long this would go on. The night before, there had at least been a few seconds respite between Dean’s release and his re-arousal, but if there were no orgasms, would this pain just continue on and on? 

“Please,” she whimpered.

“Tell me again, omega.”

“I’m yours, alpha. I’m yours. Please!” Olivia sobbed helplessly.

Suddenly, Dean’s whole body shuddered, and Olivia felt him release, then collapse on top of her as if his spinal column had been severed. His body temperature fell, and Olivia desperately felt his neck for a pulse, gasping with relief when she found one. She still couldn’t move, he was still knotted deep inside of her, but it seemed the fever had broken. Maybe it was over, or would at least not go so dangerously high again? She hoped.

A moment passed, then Dean raised his head warily. “Liv…?”

“Dean!”

“Yeah, baby, ‘sme. Did I hurt you?”

“Um, a little, yeah,” she admitted.

“Shit. Sorry.” He scented her neck. “Shit, scared you good, too. _Dammit_.”

Olivia hiccoughed a tiny laugh.

Olivia tried to grab the water bottle, but it was out of her reach, and with Dean still smushing her, and knotted inside of her, she couldn’t even squirm over for it.

“Dean? Could you…? I need some water, hey?”

“OH, yeah, sorry, sweetheart, here,” Dean raised himself up on one hand, reaching with the other for the bottle. He uncapped it and offered it to Olivia. She sipped. Dean drank some, too; then, bottle empty, he tossed it in the trash.

“Um…Liv?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t have a lot of knowledge about what went on just then, but we seem to still be…joined, here.”

“Yes.”

“Did I…I have this vague feeling that I…maybe… _claimed_ you. Did I?”

Olivia looked away. Dean’s heart sank.

“Yes, Dean. You did.”

“And then you _admitted_ the claim, didn’t you?” Dean found himself dreading her answer, especially when she didn’t respond right away.

Eventually, however, Olivia sighed. “Yes, Dean.”

“But it was when I was hurting you, wasn’t it, Liv?” Dean bit his tongue, but he had to know.

Again, several minutes passed before Olivia let out another sigh, and nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks again. “My admitting it was, I think, what brought you out of the fever, Dean.”

“Oh, Liv….Look, it’s not valid, it was under duress. I…I won’t hold you to it, baby.”

Olivia nodded again, still unable to meet Dean’s eyes. Dean began to panic a little, wondering what, exactly, he had done these two nights. He knew he’d hurt Olivia more than she’d admitted the night before. Now, it seemed he’d maybe screwed up their entire relationship. He wondered if Olivia would ever be able to tell him all that he couldn’t remember. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know, but he already knew he _needed_ to know, if he was ever going to fix things between them.

“Liv? Please, sweetheart, please look at me,” Dean begged.

Olivia turned her head slowly back in Dean’s direction, and he realized that it was her eyes that were a little glassy, now. “Liv? Shit. Liv, talk to me. Talk to me, dammit!” He patted her cheek gently, then reached down to kiss her softly. “Liv? Please, honey, talk to me.”

“D…I’m kinda…tired.” Olivia yawned.

“Liv, are we still okay, baby?” Dean pleaded softly.

“Yeah, D…. We’re good.” Olivia’s eyes fluttered shut, and he realized she’d fallen asleep, despite his weight, and despite his knotted cock still being buried within her. He winced, and rose up off of her chest, at least, balancing on his elbows, and sighed.

He glanced over at the clock, unsurprised to find that it was nearly 4:30 am. If the night before was anything to go by, he probably had another half hour to wait before he’d be able to pull out. And then Sam would probably be calling to justifiably yell at him again. Well, he _deserved_ it. Hell, if Sam really did fly out and kill him, or kick his ass, he deserved _that_ , too. He’d even tell Sam so.

As long as Olivia didn’t hate him, even if she wasn’t willing to honor his claim on her, he’d be okay. Hell, he deserved her hatred, too. He scrubbed at his forehead with his fingers idly, sinking into the self-deprecating shame to which he was already so accustomed. “Dammit,” he whispered.

He looked around to see if there was another water bottle within reach, but no. Damn. He wanted to get more water into Olivia, who had sipped a little, but he knew she had not taken in nearly enough fluids over the course of the past 48 hours. He wondered if he could try to make the knot recede, but any effort in that direction seemed to make it bigger, instead, so he quickly gave that effort up as hopeless.

After about 15 minutes, Olivia’s eyes fluttered open again. “Hey, Liv. Welcome back.” Dean smiled softly down at her, hoping he could keep her calm when she realized they were still knotted.

Olivia realized it immediately, and blushed a little. She really wanted a good stretch, but didn’t think that was such a good idea at just that particular moment. “Hey, D.”

“Liv.”

“Yeah, D?”

“Sorry.”

“Stop it, Dean.”

“Gotta, Liv. I know it’s the inner wolf, and I can’t control it, and whatever, but I _hate_ that I hurt you. Hate that I put you through that.”

“I know, Dean.”

“Shit.”

“Shhh. Dean, do you remember what we did first, tonight? That was all you, right?”

“Yeah, Liv.”

“Well, that was great, D. You were amazing. I saw the whole universe, there, for a second. _YOU_ don’t owe me any apologies, Dean Winchester.”

Oh. Ohhh! He thought about that. He looked at Olivia, looked deep into her eyes, and she looked steadily back…and smiled. He relaxed. Immediately, the knot receded, and he was able to withdraw from her. He slid over, sat up, then helped Olivia to sit up slowly, as well.

And then the cell phone rang. Dean and Olivia looked at each other, and laughed.

“You wanna tell your brother that we’re both still alive, D?” Olivia grinned at him.

“Yeah, Liv. You go drink some more water, hear?” Dean grinned back, then answered the phone.

“Hey, Sammy.”

***

Dean and Olivia decided to skip breakfast and just grab coffee at the drive-thru Starbucks on the way back to the highway. Olivia called Bobby quickly to give him the heads-up that they were about to get back on the road while Dean gassed up Baby, then they got back on I-90 for the last short leg of the trip back to Sioux Falls.

Dean found himself nervously tapping the steering wheel repeatedly, wondering if Olivia would honor his claim, if he asked her to. He would respect it if she decided not to; after all, he’d meant it when he said he wouldn’t hold her to a claim made under duress, which his certainly had been. He'd break the claim, if that's what she wanted. But he found himself, for the first time, hoping that she _would_ honor it. He’d had a lot of relationships, and most had started as one-night stands. Most had finished that way, too. Now, he realized, he wanted something more, but he had no idea what Olivia wanted, and he was too afraid to ask.

Olivia found herself drumming along to the song on the radio, patting her jean-clad thighs to the beat, thinking about how best to slip out of Bobby’s house that night. Despite Dean having told her that he wouldn’t hold her to his claim, she didn’t trust that he’d meant it, or that he’d be able to override his inner wolf sufficiently to keep from trying to track her if she didn’t just sneak off.

She hated the feeling that she could no longer trust her best friend, but Jesus, how much pain was one person supposed to have to take from another before they reached a snapping point? Yes, she’d understood it wasn’t Dean, _her_ Dean, that had hurt her. No, she didn’t blame Dean a bit. But trusting him? Yeah, no. Reasonable or not, there it was. And she wasn’t about to tell him. Not right now. She was too afraid that Dean would ask her to stay – and too afraid that if he did, if she gave him that chance, she’d say _yes_.

The marks he’d left on her went soul-deep. The bruises would fade, but the other marks would not. And regardless of what Dean had said about not holding her to the claim, if he asked her to honor it, if she gave him that chance, she knew she’d do that, too. So she couldn’t give him that chance.

She loved Dean. He was her best friend. And under duress or not, he had claimed her, and she had admitted the claim. A part of him _owned_ a part of her, and always would.

But she was still in love with Sam, even if she’d never be able to tell Sam that ever again.

Dammit.

What choice did she have? She had to leave. And she couldn’t tell Dean she was going.

That’s just all there was to it.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To clarify - Dean knows how to break a claim, but Olivia doesn't know a claim CAN be broken. She knows she can dishonor it, particularly if Dean chooses not to assert it, but she thinks it's permanent.


	3. In the Heat of the Night, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sixteen years later, Olivia needs help. After three years of heat-suppressant prescription drugs, her heat cycle is going to hit. She's alone, and in Kansas, a state where she can't think of anyone she knows...at first.

Olivia Fortuna did not want to be in Kansas right now. No, Toto, Oz would surely be better. Practically anywhere would be better than Kansas, particularly right fucking now. Because unfortunately, Olivia _wasn’t_ fucking right now, but she _was_ going into heat. Her first heat in three years, due to the suppressants she’d been taking, which meant this particular heat was going to be particularly bad. But Olivia, so far as she knew, knew no one in Kansas.

She squirmed in the driver’s seat of her ancient pick-up truck as she drove on old US-36 just west of Mankato, Kansas, and tried to think, desperately, of anyone – literally, anyone – she knew who lived in Kansas. Anyone who could help with what was sure to be the worst heat of her life.

And then it hit her. _Shit_.

She DID know someone who lived in Kansas. Two someones, in fact. And they were less than an hour away. And one of them, in particular, owed her a VERY big favor; just this kind of favor, in fact. The problem being, she could never collect.

She could _never_ go to either Sam or Dean Winchester with this problem.

Olivia pulled the truck over to the side of the road, and put it in park. She scrubbed her face in her hands. “No. No, NO, NO! Absolutely NO, NO FUCKING WAY am I calling on Dean to get me through this.”

Theoretically, she knew she _could_ call Dean. She knew that Dean would always take her call. Damn alpha would probably love to re-assert his claim on her.

But even without that sticky wicket, Dean owed her, big time. After all, she had helped him through one of the worst rut fevers of his life.

Yes, theoretically, she could certainly call Dean. Dean would help her. But there would be a cost, and the cost was likely to be her soul.

No. Calling Dean was out. She hadn’t run out on him and stayed gone for literally 16 years just to waltz back into his life now.

And Sam. God, Sam.

She knew that she was still in love with Sam Winchester. Always had been, likely always would be. The fact that she had neither seen nor spoken to Sam in 16 years was irrelevant. Sam was it for Olivia. But having been claimed by Dean, Olivia couldn’t now ask this of Sam. As in, she literally couldn’t. The words literally would not make it past her throat. She knew. She’d tried. About five years ago, she’d found a phone number for Sam, and she had tried to call him. But when he’d answered, she could not make herself speak. Because all she’d wanted to say was “I love you, Sam,” and due to Dean’s prior claim, even if he had never asserted it, and despite the fact that she’d spent 16 years flatly dishonoring it, those words were now forbidden to her.

_Shit_.

Two men, both of whom would be happy to help, both alphas, who would probably see it as their duty to help any omega, much less Olivia, who had practically been their sister at one time, to whom Dean owed a favor, and whom, although she could no longer say the words, Sam knew had, at one time, been in love with him.

Oh, they’d help. Either of them would gladly help. But she could. Not. Ask. Them. So….

Shit. Who else? There had to be someone else in this God forsaken state that she knew. Didn’t there? Dammit.

Olivia sighed and pulled out her cell phone.

“Hey, Liv!” She smiled at Garth’s eternally cheery voice.

“Hey, Garth. Need a favor, babe.”

“For certain sure, Livvy, whatcha need?”

“I need the name of a male alpha hunter, _not_ named Winchester, currently residing in the state of Kansas.”

Garth was silent, which was uncharacteristic.

“Garth? Still there? Did my phone cut out?”

“Nah, Liv, I’m here, just thinkin’. _Not_ the Winchesters? Liv, they’re _it_ , in Kansas. Why would anyone else bother with Sam and Dean’s little corner of the world?”

“Shit. Really, Garth? _No one_ else lives in Kansas?”

Just then, a shiny black ’67 Impala drove past in the opposite direction. No. It couldn’t be. She watched the car in her rear view mirror, and saw, with horror, that it was turning around in the median…and coming back to pull up behind her truck.

“ _Shit_. Garth, I gotta go. I’ll call you back. You think real hard for me, okay?” She ended the call, and watched as the driver’s side door of the Impala opened, holding her breath to see who would step out….and to her utter confusion, it was a teenaged kid she didn’t know. Who the bloody hell was that? Because _that_ , sure as shit, was Dean Winchester’s Baby, and no way did Dean Winchester let some snot-nosed teenager drive _his_ car.

The kid walked up to her passenger door. She slid over and rolled the window down.

“Can I help you, ma’am? This is kind of a bad place to break down, but if you need help, my dad is a great mechanic,” the kid told her.

“Oh, he is, is he? What’s your name, kid?” she asked.

“Oh, my name is Jack, ma’am, Jack Kline.”

Jack Kline. Well, then, this isn’t Dean’s kid, so what’s he doing with Dean’s fucking car?

“Your dad work on your car, kid? It’s pretty.”

“Oh, that’s my dad’s car, ma’am. In fact, he calls it his Baby.”

Shit. Dean _is_ this kid’s dad?

“How old are you, Jack? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“Oh, well, ma’am, I don’t mind, but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Jack grinned at her.

“Dunno, kid, I tend to believe a lot.” Olivia looked at her watch. Dammit, she’d been sitting here nearly half an hour. Garth had nothing, and she definitely needed help, and _soon_.

“Does your truck run, ma’am? Like, are you just out of gas? Or do you need a tow? Because if it’s just gas, I’ve got a gas can in my trunk, but if you need a tow, that could take hours out here. You’re kind of in the middle of nowhere,” Jack told her.

“The truck’s actually fine, Jack,” Olivia told him. “I pulled over for sort of…well, an existential crisis I’m having. Not because of car trouble.”

“Oh, I see. Well, then maybe I should call my _other_ dad. He’s really good with existential crises,” Jack said, nodding thoughtfully.

Wait. Dean had a kid with another _guy_? This was getting weird.

“You have two dads, Jack? Isn’t that sort of progressive for Kansas?” Olivia asked.

“Oh, it’s not…” Jack giggled. “It’s not like that, ma’am. Actually, if you really want to know, I have _four_ fathers.” He started laughing so hard at that that he doubled over and started to snort. Olivia watched him guffaw with some mild amusement, but dammit, she wanted some answers, now.

Jack’s laughing fit eventually died out, and he grinned up at Olivia. “In fact, ma’am, I have four fathers, and one mother. One father and my mother are deceased, and the other three fathers raise me. Kline is my late mother’s name.”

“I see…” Olivia said, although she really didn’t. “I don’t suppose one of your fathers is named Dean Winchester?”

Jack looked astonished. “Why, yes, ma’am. How’d you know?”

Olivia smiled. “I’d know Baby anywhere, Jack. Although I haven’t seen Dean in years. When you said your name was Kline, I thought maybe Dean had sold her, at first, though I couldn’t imagine it.”

A look of understanding came over Jack’s face. “Oh, so you _do_ know Dean. Do you know Sam, too?”

Olivia’s smile widened helplessly. “Yes, I do, although I haven’t seen Sam in years, either. So, if Dean is the mechanic dad, and Sam is the second dad - I take it Sam isn’t the existential crisis helper? - Who’s the third dad?”

Jack smiled back. “No, Sam is good with lots of things, but I was thinking of Cas when I said I had a dad who was good with existential crises.”

Cas? Olivia couldn’t put a face with that name, though it sounded somehow maybe vaguely familiar.

“I don’t believe I know Cas, Jack. But perhaps he could help me by at least pointing me in the right direction. Or maybe Sam or Dean can help. I really don’t know right now.”

Jack agreed that really kind of was the nature of an existential crisis. “I’ll take you to the bunker, ma’am. Follow me.”

The bunker? Yeah, that sounded right up Sam and Dean Winchester’s alley.

“Okay, Jack, lead on.”

Olivia waited for Jack to pull out ahead of her truck before she pulled out into the lane. Well, shit. At least Dean owed her one. He couldn’t very well kick her out. Could he?

Suddenly, Olivia realized that Jack had not asked for, and she had not given, her name. So, even if Jack called ahead to let his dads know he was bringing home a stray, he couldn’t tell them who. At least she had that much of an advantage. She still had the element of surprise. Now, if only she could keep her heat from coming on too badly before they got to this bunker….

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little fluffier than chaps 1 and 2. No porn here, sorry. More coming though. :)


	4. In the Heat of the Night, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia meets Castiel.

As he was bringing a new person back to the bunker, Jack knew not to park in the garage. Which meant he’d have to come back out for Baby once the woman was inside, but that was all right. Except, he now realized, he probably should have asked her name. Not knowing who he was bringing in to the bunker could be a problem, especially since she claimed to know both Sam and Dean. Hmm. Jack wasn’t sure what to do about that. So he got out his cell phone, and called Cas.

“Jack? What’s wrong?” Cas asked in his usual gravelly voice.

“Well, here’s the thing, Cas. I stopped to help a woman whose truck was parked off at the side of the road. I figured if she needed gas, I had some, and if it was mechanical, Dean could fix it, and probably faster than she’d ever get a tow truck to come out and find her, where she was parked off of 36. So she and I got to talking, and it turned out her truck was fine, and she’s in it, following me now, because she knows Sam and Dean, in fact, she recognized Baby, and she said she was having an existential crisis, and I figured you’d be best at helping with that. But Cas, I completely forgot to ask her her name, and I think that if I do so now, it’d be rude. Wouldn’t it?”

Cas had followed maybe a tenth of that. “Jack, slow down. Let me see if I’ve got this. A woman was parked off of US-36, so you stopped to help, but she wasn’t _actually_ having trouble with her truck?”

“Correct.”

“And she recognized Baby?”

“Correct.”

“And said she knew Sam and Dean?”

“Correct.”

“How’d I get into this conversation?”

“She said she was having an existential crisis, Cas. I figured you would be best at helping with that.”

“I see.”

“So now she’s following me back to the bunker, I’m in Baby, and she’s in her truck. And I realized I’d have to bring her in the front way, so I’ll have to go back out once she’s inside, and put Baby in the garage. And then I realized I’d completely forgotten to ask her what her name is.”

“And you think that if you ask her what her name is _now_ , that would be rude.”

“Correct.”

“Well, I don’t know that it would be rude, necessarily, Jack, but tell you what. How about if I come out and meet the both of you, outside, and _I_ can ask her name, and then you can show her around outside while I ask Sam and Dean if this person is someone they want to see again?”

“Oh, Cas, that’s a great idea!”

“Okay, Jack. How close to the bunker are you?”

“Just about to turn onto the dirt road that leads to the driveway, so about one minute.”

“Okay, I’ll be right out, Jack.”

“Thanks, Cas.”

Cas ended the call, then dialed Dean’s number.

Dean answered the phone, then ended up walking into the War Room and being face-to-face with Cas anyway.

“Hello, Dean.”

“Cas.”

“Jack is bringing someone back to the bunker, they’ll be here in less than a minute.”

“Who?”

“Well, that’s the thing, Dean, he forgot to ask her name, but she says she knows both you and Sam. So I’m going to go outside, and find out who she is, then Jack will show her around outside, while I come back in to make sure she’s someone you and Sam want to meet again.”

“Okay, Cas. I’ll round up Sam, and meet you back here in a bit.”

Cas went up the stairs to go outside to meet Jack and the mystery woman. Dean watched him climb the stairs, then blinked. “Sam. Right. Gotta go get Sam.” Dean headed back down the hallway towards Sam’s bedroom, where he’d last seen Sam curled up with a book on his bed.

Meanwhile, Cas stepped out into the sunshine of a Kansas summer day, and watched as Jack pulled up and parked Baby, and a very petite woman in an ancient pick-up truck pulled up next to the Impala. Cas didn’t recognize the woman, though he thought she might somehow be familiar. He couldn’t place her.

Jack was guiding the woman toward the hidden door of the bunker, when Cas stepped forward from behind the warding and into plain view.

“Hello.” Cas offered her his hand to shake. “My name is Castiel Novak. My friends call me Cas. And you are….?”

“Olivia Fortuna. My friends call me Liv. I…grew up with Sam and Dean, though it’s been a long time since I’ve seen either of them, probably…goodness, 16 years it must be now.”

“Ahh. And Jack here tells me that you’re having an existential crisis that I can perhaps assist with?”

“Hmm. Well, maybe. Though I had actually hoped to speak with Dean. He…owes me a favor.”

Cas turned to Jack. “Jack, why don’t you go put Baby in the garage. I’d like to speak with Ms. Fortuna for a moment.”

Jack nodded, waved to Olivia, and was off to put the Impala away.

Olivia smiled at Cas. “Dean doesn’t want to speak to me, does he?”

“I don’t know, Ms. Fortuna. He doesn’t know you’re here. He knows someone has arrived, but Jack forgot to ask your name, you see.”

“Ohh. So he did. So you decided to scope me out, did you?”

“Indeed.”

Olivia was vaguely amused. She sniffed the air very delicately, trying to place Cas’s designation, but couldn’t figure it out. Cas smiled. “I am an angel of the Lord, Ms. Fortuna. We have no secondary gender designations.”

Olivia gasped, suddenly realizing why Castiel was so familiar. “You!”

Cas looked at her blankly. “Me?”

“You’re Dean’s guardian angel!”

***

When Sam was six, Olivia was eight, and Dean was ten, they had gone out for a walk in the winter woods. They had taken a trail that had some hills and valleys, and one of the valleys had filled with water, then frozen over. They could either cross the ice, or go back to the last trail crossing, and Dean had decided that the ice should hold them, if they crossed one at a time. He went first, as the largest of the three then, to test the ice, because if it held his weight, it would certainly hold Sam’s or Olivia’s lesser mass. And just as he crossed the center point, he heard a creaking, cracking noise, as the ice split beneath him. Dean froze, but it was too late; the ice opened, and he sank into the water. The next thing he knew, he was back on dry land with Sam and Olivia, and Dean could have sworn he’d felt someone gripping him tightly by the shoulder and hauling him upward, but when he’d looked, there’d been no one there. But Olivia had been watching closely, and she had seen the merest hint of black wings, and clear blue eyes.

***

“You saved Dean from the water that day in the woods, when he was ten! That was you!”

Cas remembered that day very well, but he knew that neither Sam nor Dean recalled it, and he did not want them to, now, so he merely nodded and asked Ms. Fortuna to keep that between the two of them. Olivia nodded, smiling.

“I guess an angel of the Lord would be the right person to ask about an existential crisis.”

Cas barked out a laugh. “I suppose that depends on the crisis, Ms. Fortuna.”

Olivia’s smile faded. “True. And probably this particular crisis doesn’t really fall into an angel’s wheelhouse.”

“Oh?”

“I’m an omega, you see. And for the past three years, I’ve been taking drugs to suppress my heat cycle. But my prescription ran out, and I was out on a hunting trip, couldn’t get to the clinic where I’m usually seen…long story short, I had to stop taking the drugs. And now, I’m about to fall into probably the worst heat of my life, and Sam and Dean Winchester are literally the only people I knew in the entire state. I stopped on the side of the road to review options, but finally, especially after meeting Jack, I realized: I don’t have any. And Dean owes me a favor. So….”

“So.”

“So, if you wouldn’t mind popping inside, and asking Dean Winchester if he wouldn’t mind terribly paying up? I’d appreciate it.”

“Not Sam?”

Olivia blushed. “Actually, Sam _would_ be my preference. But, for one thing, Sam owes me nothing. And second, I literally cannot ask Sam to do what needs to be done here.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“Because when I did Dean the favor that means now he owes me one, he claimed me, and I admitted it. Under duress, but I did admit it. He won’t assert it because of the duress, and I’ve been dishonoring it for the past 16 years, but it will still stop me, an omega, from telling Sam Winchester, an alpha related by blood to the alpha who has a claim on me, how I feel about him, or asking him to do anything with me of a sexual nature. _Literally_ stop me, as in, the words will not come out of my mouth.”

Olivia was beet red, but she’d managed to get that all out to the angel. It somehow helped that she actually believed him to be, in fact, an angel, although she wasn’t sure why that made a difference.

Cas thought about Olivia’s problem, and her request to see Dean. She let him think, watching as he appeared to study a bee pollinating a flower.

“Well, Ms. Fortuna,” Cas said, eventually. “Can you wait here? Or has your heat begun already, as I see that you’re shivering, despite the heat and humidity here.”

“I should probably sit down, but I can open the door of my truck and sit on the step. That way, if the answer is no, they won’t see me, I won’t have to go far to get back inside the truck to leave.”

Cas nodded. “This won’t take long, Ms. Fortuna. I will be back shortly.”

He turned and stepped out of sight behind the magical warding that barred anyone outside from seeing the bunker’s door. Olivia shivered again, opened the truck door, and sat down to wait.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still fluffy.


	5. In the Heat of the Night, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Olivia chat and find a better way.

Inside the bunker, Sam and Dean were waiting in the War Room, as Cas stepped back in and came down the iron staircase from the door.

Dean looked at Cas, and asked, “Well, Cas? Who’s the mystery woman?”

“Olivia Fortuna. She says you owe her a favor, Dean, and she’s here to collect.”

As one, Sam and Dean both gasped, “LIV? Here?”

Sam grinned from ear-to-ear, but Dean put his head in his hands and groaned.

“Shit, Sam, I can’t see Liv.”

“Well, you DO owe her, Dean. After what you did to her the last time you were together? _Whatever_ she wants, if she’s finally willing to see you long enough to ask for something, you’d better pay up, bud.”

“You think I don’t KNOW what I owe Liv, Sam? Really?” Dean ran his fingers through his hair tiredly. _Shit_. Liv.

Cas looked from Sam to Dean, then back to Sam. “So, um, should I have her come in? Because she’s sitting outside, and it’s pretty hot out there, and I think she might be…coming down with something.”

“Shit! Liv’s sick? I’ll go get her!” Dean hopped up and raced up the steps to the door. Then stopped at the door. Then turned and looked suspiciously down at Cas from the balcony.

“Cas? Coming down with…what, exactly?”

Cas looked up at Dean, his eyes twinkling. “Her first heat cycle after three years of prescription suppressants, Dean.”

Dean groaned.

“Holy shit, that’s no joke, Dean. Livvy’s gonna need MAJOR help to get through that,” Sam stated the obvious quite nicely at times.

“Shit. I can’t do it, Sam. _No way_ can I help Liv through a heat cycle.”

“DEAN. She literally GAVE HERSELF TO YOU to get you through the worst rut fever of your life, and now you won’t help her? _Fuck you_ , Dean. I’ll go get her and help her myself.” Sam rose from his chair, but before he’d taken a step, Dean stopped him.

“NO, Sam, don’t you get it? Yes, she gave herself to me, AND I HURT HER. Fuck, Sam, I as good as _raped_ Liv. I claimed her against her will while out of my mind from rut fever, bruised her severely, clearly killed any trust she ever had for me, I hurt her so badly she ran off in the middle of the night as soon as she could get back to her precious truck, and then she didn’t even bother to drop so much as a fucking postcard for SIXTEEN YEARS, Sam. It’s not that I WON’T help her. It’s that I literally _can’t touch her_ , because if I get anywhere near her, I’ll vomit from the shame of it, and how the HELL am I supposed to help an omega female through a heat cycle if I CAN’T FUCKING TOUCH HER?”

“Fine, Dean, then _I’ll_ take care of her.” Sam started to move, but again, Dean stopped him.

“Sam, _you_ can’t.”

“Why the hell not, Dean?”

“Because under duress or not, dishonored or not, my claim on her is still active, Sam.” Sam looked wildly from Dean to Cas at this, looking for a confirmation of this vile fact.

Cas nodded at Sam, clearly disturbed by the entire conversation.

“Dean? How _could_ you?”

“What, Sam? What was I supposed to do? I TRIED TO FIND LIV, Sam. I tried for YEARS. I couldn’t break the claim without being in her presence. I didn’t know she was going to run off, or I would have told her that, and that I _would_ break it if that was what she wanted. Then she didn’t want anything to do with me for sixteen years. And now that she’s here, shit, I’d _gladly_ break the claim, but I don’t know how, because the thought of being anywhere near her makes me physically ill, after what I put her through.” Dean dropped his face back into his hands, and thought he could have wept.

“Well, let’s at least get her inside out of the heat. Cas, can you get her? Maybe take her into the kitchen for, I dunno, iced tea or something else cold to drink. I dunno if she still does, but Liv used to tend to forget to drink fluids and so she would get dehydrated easily,” Sam told the angel. Cas nodded and slipped past Dean to go outside.

Sam walked over to Dean. “Dean, this is on you. _Fix it_. Either you help her through her heat, or you break the claim so I can. I don’t care which. Or find another way to help her. But if you decide you’re going to help her through it, so help me, Dean, you’d better not hurt her again, or I _will_ hurt you.”

Sam stalked off, and Dean knew he’d meant every word.

***

Outside, Cas approached Olivia with quite a bit more care than he had previously. “Ms. Fortuna? Are you all right?”

Olivia looked up and smiled. “I’m okay, thank you. It won't hit until just after sundown.”

“Ah. Um. Sam and Dean had a bit of a go-round about you. The suggestion for the moment is to get you inside, out of the heat, and get you something cold to drink. Perhaps some iced tea?” Cas offered Olivia his arm, and she took it, as she closed the truck door, rather charmed by the angel.

As she stepped through the door into the bunker, Olivia gasped softly at its spaciousness, then stopped dead in her tracks, her hand flying to her lips, as she caught sight and the scent of Dean, sitting at the War Room table below the balcony, his back to her. Cas cleared his throat, and Dean stood, and slowly turned to look up at her.

“Hello, Liv.” Dean’s voice was quiet with shame.

Olivia shocked both Dean and Cas by practically flying down the iron steps to throw herself at Dean, whose arms fortunately came up in time to catch her, as she gave him a desperate hug.

Dean cleared his throat. “Um, Liv? Not that it’s not great to see you, but this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.”

Olivia recovered herself, and backed away a bit, wiping at her eyes. “No, I suppose it isn’t. Sorry.”

“Shit, Liv, don’t apologize to me. Don’t EVER apologize to _me_. I’m the one who’s sorry, okay?” Dean gulped for air, his head hanging down so far, his chin practically banged against his pecs.

“Oh, Dean. No. Seriously. It’s my fault.”

Cas was seriously confused now. Dean had confessed to rape, holding and claiming an omega against her will under duress, and assault and battery, and was clearly feeling the weight of the guilt of all of that, but the alleged victim of these crimes was claiming liability? Cas edged toward the kitchen, thinking that cold drinks were in order, and his might need alcohol.

As the angel made good his escape, which did not go unnoticed by Dean, Dean offered Olivia a seat.

“Look, Liv, Cas told us your situation. I see a few options here. One, I can help you, alone, the way you helped me, but honestly, I don’t know if you’d want that, given our history, and if not, hey, I totally get it. Two, I can break my claim on you, and Sam, or someone else, if you’d prefer, can help you. And you should know, Sam is willing, if you want to go that route. But, hear me out, I just thought of something, and there might be an even better way to handle this, if you can handle it.”

“What’s that, Dean?” Olivia looked skeptical, and rather nervous.

“Well, I honestly think my claim on you _should_ be broken. It was a shit thing to do, you were under duress when you admitted the claim, and I would have broken it back then, if that had been the decision. But I wanted to talk about it, and clearly, you didn’t. And I’m not blaming you, Liv. I get it. I broke trust. But if you can find it in you to trust me now….”

Dean’s voice trailed off, and Olivia squinted at him. “Dean? I can’t read minds, here.”

“Right. Yeah, no, sorry. Anyway, um, if you can trust me enough – and if you can’t, I get it, really – I can…expand the claim.”

“Expand…? I don’t get it, Dean. What does that mean?”

“It means that I would still be the primary alpha, but other alphas on whom we mutually decide could be invited to…join us. Liv, if you haven’t had a heat cycle in three years due to suppressant drugs, this heat cycle could kill you. Frankly, I don’t know if any one alpha, myself included, no matter how much I, or they wanted to, could give you enough stimulation to keep the fever to manageable levels, as you did for me. But if we expand the claim, and invite in a mutually agreeable alpha, then he and I could spell each other, take breaks, keeping you safe, while not exhausting ourselves, so that everyone gets through this safely.

“If the claim is simply broken, you’d only be able to have one alpha help you, Liv. And whoever that ends up being would likely want to at least mark, if not claim, you.

“But if the existing claim is expanded, there’s no danger of jealousy between competing alphas, because there’s an existing claim, an existing hierarchy, and everyone’s priority can just be to focus on you, and getting you what you need, Liv.

“And if you want me to, I can still break the claim afterward, once you’re safely through your heat.”

Olivia blinked owlishly at Dean as he explained. “O…kay. So…. Who were you thinking we would invite, Dean? Just one additional alpha, right? Please tell me you weren’t thinking orgy.” Olivia grinned suddenly, and Dean raised an eyebrow, but felt the corner of his mouth drifting upward as well.

“Well, Liv, I was thinking…”

And they finished the sentence together, “Sam!”

“You said that he was willing to help?” Olivia asked.

“Well, basically what he said was that if I couldn’t help you, then I damn well ought to break the claim, so he _could_. But I hadn’t thought of expanding the claim, so I haven’t discussed it with him. I will, if you want me to, Liv.”

Olivia nodded slowly. “And you’d really be willing to break the claim later, Dean? You won’t remark and reclaim me in the midst of this?”

“Liv, I would have broken it before, but I had to be in your presence, and I wanted to ask you, have a discussion, about it, but you snuck out of Bobby’s house and ran off before I could.”

“Oh, Dean. I’m sorry. We had that one moment, yeah? Where you said you’d never claim me against my will, but I was thinking you already kind of had, and so I said you absolutely would, and you agreed, and frankly, it freaked me out.”

“I get it, Liv. Look, I know I hurt you badly back then. I know you kept saying it was just bruises, but I know there was more that you weren’t sharing, it showed in your eyes. I broke your trust, Liv. I didn’t deserve your trust. Someday, maybe you’ll be able to tell me exactly what I did do when I was out of my head, because I know I don’t remember even a tenth of what I did. And then I’ll know why you hated me so much that you left and hid for sixteen years.” Dean sighed.

“But for right now, I promise, I will neither remark nor reclaim you during this heat cycle, and once it’s over, I will break the claim I’ve had over you all this time, freeing you to be with whomever you wish, Liv. I just want you to be happy, Livvy. Truly.”

Olivia smiled at Dean and drew him in for a gentle hug. After a moment, Dean hugged back, gingerly, still feeling that he had no right to a hug from Liv.

“Why don’t you go talk to Sam, Dean?” Olivia fanned her face with her hand. “By the way, Dean, what time is it?”

Dean looked at his watch. “5:30, Liv. Why?”

“Dean, it’s after sundown.”

“Yeah. And?”

“Dean, my cycle.”

“Starts at midnight. And?”

Olivia shook her head. “No, Dean. YOUR cycle starts at midnight. Mine has always started just after sundown.”

Dean looked horrified. “Shit.”

“Go talk to Sam, Dean.”

“Right. On it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short. Sorry. Less fluffy, but still not porn. More coming - plot AND porn! ;)


	6. In the Heat of the Night, Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel clears some toxins. Olivia, Dean, and Sam consent to an expanded claim.

Olivia sat back in her chair, noticing the initials carved into the War Room table, matching the set that had been carved into the back shelf of the Impala by the brothers years before. Only now there was a third set – “MW”. Olivia wondered idly who MW was, but figured it must not be anyone either brother was married to, as a wife would have stopped either of them from offering to help her through her heat. She shrugged. Cas re-entered the War Room carrying a tray with several glasses of iced tea, and stopped almost comically upon noticing that Olivia was the only person present.

“It’s okay, Cas. I’m very thirsty,” she smiled at him. “At least, I hope that I can call you Cas?”

“Only if I may call you Liv?” the angel asked, gravely.

“Of course. So, this place. Seems huge.”

“It is. Easy to get lost in, at first. I don’t recommend wandering without a companion who knows the place already. Even just carrying a cell phone isn’t enough, as this place has too much magical warding to be able to get a decent signal. Sam is experimenting with cable wi-fi, but so far, no luck.”

Olivia smiled at Cas’ assumption that she’d be here long enough to wander.

“Hey, Cas? I was wondering. Sam and Dean’s initials are carved here, but there’s an ‘MW’ here, too. Who’s that?”

Cas blinked, having failed to previously notice the initials. “Well, MW would be Mary Winchester.”

“Mary? Their mother?”

“Indeed.”

“Oh. Like a memorial tribute, then?”

“Um. Not exactly. At some point, you might want to have Dean explain.”

“Okay.” Olivia sipped her iced tea and tried to relax, but the heat cycle had definitely started, and her temperature was going up.

“Hey, Cas? Do you think you could tell Dean he needs to get a move on?”

Cas studied Olivia, and noticed the flushed cheeks, parted lips, and casual posture. He reached over and tapped her wrist, and Olivia instantly felt better.

“Whoa, Cas, what’d you do?”

“Well, it’s akin to healing; although you’re technically not ill, some of the hormones that an omega pumps into their bloodstream during a heat cycle would be considered a toxin at any other time. Early in the cycle, my powers are able to cleanse the blood of the toxins. Once the cycle gets going, the body recognizes the toxins as necessary ingredients, and I can do nothing, but you’re still in the very early stages.” Cas smiled cheerily at Olivia, and she raised her glass in a mock salute, then sipped more of the excellent tea.

Cas slipped out to find Dean. Although the explanation he’d given Olivia was correct, he’d noticed that though she was in “early stages” there was a great deal more toxin than he’d expected to find, and this was going to be a dangerous cycle, indeed. He didn’t want to alarm Olivia, but did want to warn Dean.

He found Sam and Dean returning to the War Room. Cas explained what he’d discovered, and Sam and Dean glanced at each other.

They hurried on to the War Room, to find Olivia already once again sweating, flushed, and too relaxed one minute, then shivering, teeth chattering, the next. Dean whispered something over Olivia’s head, then bent and whispered in her ear. She nodded.

“Omega, do you consent to the claim that I currently hold over you being expanded for the purposes of your current heat cycle to include one additional alpha, that is, my brother, Sam Winchester?”

“Yes, alpha.”

“Alpha Sam, do you consent to being added to this expanded claim as an alpha, subject to me in the hierarchy of the claim, for the purpose of managing this omega’s current heat cycle?”

“Yes, alpha.”

“Do both of you consent now to the breaking of the claim in its entirety, as I do, following the conclusion of this omega’s current heat cycle?”

They both answered at once: “Yes, alpha.”

Oliva, Sam, and Dean each felt something charged change in the air around them, as the claim’s limits lifted and resettled around all three of them. Olivia gasped softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one. Still all plot, but less fluffy by the minute. ;)


	7. In the Heat of the Night, Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean, still rolling in guilt, finds it hard to face Olivia, so leaves getting her comfortable to Sam. Getting her comfortable takes some doing on Sam's part.

The two alphas helped Olivia to her feet, and supported her in the short journey to the bunker’s bedchambers. Due to Sam’s height, he had not only the largest bedroom, but the largest bed. Plus, he was by far the neatest regular inhabitant of the bunker, so there was far less clutter in his room. Thus, it was to Sam’s room that the three of them made their way.

Sam collected some extra blankets and pillows and brought them in, hurriedly creating a nest on the bed. Olivia gratefully curled up with her back against the pillow wall thus created, while Sam went to fill a bathtub with cold water, in case Olivia’s fever got too high.

Dean got out the Tylenol, shaking 2 into his hand. He brought the pills and a glass of water over to Olivia, and watched her take them, then felt her forehead with the back of his hand.

“We’re cutting this too close, Livvy.”

“Dean… too late already.” Olivia whispered, miserably.

Dean nodded. “What do you need, Liv?”

“So…. Hot in here….” Olivia moaned, twisting on the sheet to try to find a cool spot. Dean found Sam’s little desk fan, plugged it in, and turned it toward Olivia’s face to give her a little cooling breeze.

Sam came back in with a cold damp washcloth. Dean threw him a helpless look.

“Sam, she’s already pretty far gone. I still feel too guilty, so, can you start her out? I’ll, um, go get more bottled water from the pantry.”

Sam rolled his eyes at Dean, but sat on the edge of the bed to run the cloth over Olivia’s face and neck.

Dean ran out and down the hall toward the kitchen, trying not to retch. It wasn’t like he hadn’t told Sam the effect his guilt had on him. Not his fault if Sam hadn’t believed him. He reached the kitchen, and vomited into the waste basket beneath the sink, then leaned against the sink weakly for a moment.

He rinsed out his mouth and wiped his face, then got a 12-pack of bottled water, and began the walk, slowly, back to Sam’s bedroom, purposely dragging his feet to give Sam time to get Olivia settled in.

***

Meanwhile, back in Sam’s room, with the claim’s limits lifted on Sam, Olivia was finally free to say what she wished to Sam, but after 16 years of not talking to him at all, wasn’t sure what she should say. So, she was grateful when Sam started.

“Liv? I’m not sure if you can hear me, but I want to say it anyway. I love you. I want to take care of you. I’ve wished I could have stopped what happened between you and Dean so many times. It wasn’t fair that we only got to say ‘I love you’ the one time over the phone. Just so you know, yes, there have been other people for me since then, but there’s no one for me now but you. And if you don’t feel the same, after this is over, that’s fine, too. But I had to say it, Livvy. I love you.”

Olivia’s eyes fluttered open and she peered up at Sam, reminding him of a kitten. Her voice already hoarse from a dry throat, she whispered, “Sam. I hear…Love…you…back….” And smiled.

Then her eyes closed, and Sam winced as her entire body appeared to slump into unconsciousness. Sam quickly stripped off her clothes, and carried her to the waiting cold bath, carefully setting her down in the water, feeling her face for the signs that her temperature was dropping sufficiently. It came down slowly, but it did come down.

All the same, Sam knew the one thing that kept a rut or heat fever down to below-dangerous levels was sexual stimulation. Olivia would need to be touched, and more, on an almost-constant basis, from now until her cycle was over. Sam wished he knew how long Olivia’s cycle usually lasted. Every omega’s heat was different, from 3 days per month to 14 days straight every 3 months. Sam made a note to ask Olivia if she had a cogent moment.

Sam lifted Olivia out of the cold water and carried her back to his bed, setting her down carefully. Then he sighed, shook his head, and stripped off his flannel shirt, Henley, and jeans, then his boxer briefs, and finally his socks, then slipped into the bed next to Olivia, and drew only a sheet up over both of them.

He curled around Olivia, and slipped a finger down to find her clit, stroking it gently as he kissed her neck softly, his old anger with Dean flaring at the sight of the old scar where Dean had bitten her to set the permanent mark. But at least within the limits of the expanded claim, his own inner wolf felt no need to mark the already-claimed omega, and he was content to be gentle, giving soft stokes and pets and licks of his tongue.

Olivia shivered, and whispered, “Sam? So…good, Sam, please. Need….”

“Whatever you want, Liv, whatever you need, we’ll get it or do it, Livvy, just want this to be good for you, baby,” Sam whispered back lovingly, as he continued the slow and sensual hand and lip movements against Olivia’s skin, one finger almost always on her clit, moving in slow and tender circles. Sam bent his head and suckled gently on her nipple, and Olivia moaned, her back arching up to press more deeply into Sam’s mouth. Sam slid an arm beneath her to support her better, and sucked a bit harder, a little more deeply. Olivia whimpered, writhing in his arms. Sam whispered to her, encouragement, love, permission, trying to gauge her needs.

Although he was naked too, Sam had no intention of going inside of Olivia with anything other than his finger. He just knew that the omega would need the skin-on-skin contact.

But Olivia had other ideas. “Sam, please. Need you. Love you. Want you. Pleeease, Sam,” she begged, wheedling, desperate to feel anything – everything – at this point, to take Sam, or Dean, or oh, God, just someone, anyone, “pleeease, Sam!”

And Sam realized what he’d been doing wasn’t enough, he was going to have to actually slide inside of her, take her, use her in a way he didn’t want to. He suddenly knew why Dean was taking so long to come back from the kitchen: because Dean knew what Sam would have to do, knew he’d have to do it, too, that they’d each have to do it again, and again, over and over. And it literally made Dean ill. As Sam now felt vaguely ill, but even more determined that Olivia would be the one to be pleasured through all of this.

“Sam, please…need…need you, so much….please, God, Sam!” Olivia moaned over and over, begging.

“All right, Livvy, I’m here, baby, tell me what you want, honey. I only want to do what you want, Liv, want you to have the pleasure here. So, talk to me, Livvy.”

“Sam, please, I need you… inside…me, slow and… gentle is great, but….oh, God, Sam. I need…so much.”

“Okay, Liv. Okay.” Sam helped her get comfortable on her back, then scooted himself down until his legs from the knees down were hanging off the bed (his OWN bed, for fuck’s sake), in order to nestle himself between her thighs and press in, slowly. Olivia opened her eyes, triumphantly said, “Yesssssssssssss,” and thrust her hips upward to take Sam all the way in. Sam gasped, startled, but let Olivia have her way, steadfast in his decision to give Olivia all that she wanted.

Olivia hummed. “Sam…so good…need…move, please,” she whimpered, because he wasn’t moving, and he needed to be moving. She needed to feel him _moving_ , dammit, _now_. Sam was surprised at her request to move, and looked to see how he might be hurting her, but then realized what she’d actually meant.

“Ohh…okay. All right, Liv.” Sam took a deep breath, and started to move within Olivia, bending his head to kiss her softly. Olivia kissed back, arching her back and moving her hips to thrust back against Sam, to take him deeper, losing herself in the stimulation she needed so badly. Sam found her clit and continued to circle it lightly with a finger, while his other hand gently toyed with Olivia’s breasts. Olivia gasped.

“Sam…so close now…so good, thank you, Sam, thank you!”

Olivia cried out, finding her release, just as Sam did the same, moaning softly into Olivia’s neck as he spurted into her. Sam finished, made sure Olivia could breathe, and tried to catch his own breath, then rolled over onto his side next to her, so as not to crush her, but facing her to be able to keep an eye on her.

“Liv? Are we good?” Sam asked.

Olivia smiled softly up at Sam, the fever abating for the moment.

“I thought that was pretty good, yeah, Sam.” She reached up and caressed his cheek.

“Not what I actually meant, but yeah." Sam blushed a little, grinning at her. "Um…how long does your cycle usually last, Liv?”

“Usually about 3 days, I’m pretty lucky. But after being on suppressants for three years, and not having been weaned off of them, but just stopping them? I honestly don’t know what will happen this time, Sam.”

“Okay.”

“Sam?”

“Yeah, Liv?”

“I love you. I heard you, earlier, every word.”

Sam smiled and kissed her gently, wrapping his arms around her comfortably as she snuggled closer to him.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my current stopping point. There'll be more later. Dean will get past the guilt, eventually. :)
> 
> Comments are welcome, btw.


	8. Expanded Relationships, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean has a revelation, and it explains so much.

As Dean neared the door of Sam’s room, he heard the muffled, but unmistakable, sounds of sex within, and realized it would be a supremely bad time for him to enter the room. He backtracked a bit to his own room, glad of the opportunity to think for a bit and get himself together.

He set the bottled water down near the door, and sat on the edge of his bed. Dean sighed. This sucked.

Not seeing Liv, that part was great. But having the whole mess from 16 years ago dragged back up in his psyche from where it had been buried? That sucked. He laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Dean wasn’t terribly happy about the conversation he’d had to have with Sam and Cas, either. Cas hadn’t known anything about Olivia, and Dean wasn’t looking forward to explaining the whole mess to him. On the other hand….

Dean suddenly sat bolt upright on the bed, eyes wide.

Shit! No wonder! _He’d had an active claim_. That claim bound _him_ just as much as it did _Olivia_. Neither of them, while the claim was active, could tell someone outside the claim that they were attracted to them, wanted them sexually, or loved them in a romantic way, beyond the vague generalities that usually sufficed for no more than a one-night stand. If they tried to speak, the words wouldn’t come out. They couldn’t act on those feelings long-term, either. A casual fling was just barely possible, but anything based on real emotion was blocked. So, Olivia would not have been able to tell Sam that she loved him, nor to ask him to help her with her heat cycle, without today’s expansion of the claim to include Sam.

And Dean…. Dean had never been able to say anything to _Cas_. Hadn’t even really been able to explore in his own mind how he actually might feel about Cas – still couldn’t, really, though he was able now to perceive the border of the limitation that prevented it. He’d always just settled on considering Cas to be like a brother, but now Dean realized that was simply because the active claim he had on Olivia simply wouldn’t let him direct his emotion toward Cas in any other direction. If he concentrated, Dean knew that what he felt for the angel was not simply friendship, or even brotherhood, or even _familial_ at all, really - but even now, he couldn’t put a name on it, or think about it very hard for very long, because the claim was still active, and had not been expanded to include Cas, just Sam.

It was a real revelation.

Dean thought about Lisa, and wondered if that relationship had gone south because of the claim as well. He thought maybe it had. After all, even though he’d lived with Lisa for over a year, he’d never been able to be truly emotionally open with her. He’d never actually been able to tell Lisa that he loved her. He’d tried to be affectionate, but it had come out controlling, to the point that it had scared him, even more than it had scared her. Eventually, he’d had to have Cas remove him from her memories. And moving on from that had hurt, but thinking back on it, Dean realized that he’d gotten over it a lot faster than he’d actually expected to, and that was probably because the claim simply forced him not to think about Lisa in a romantic way.

Dean thought back further, to Cassie. That had been different, hadn’t it? But then he realized that he had initially started, and had most of the relationship with Cassie before Sam had gone to Stanford – long before the claim with Olivia – so that when he and Sam had helped Cassie with the ghost truck, and their relationship had re-sparked after the claim had been set, he hadn’t had to say anything deep. She had already known how he felt, and it had actually been _Cassie’s_ emotional limitations that had killed off that potential pairing.

Dean started picking at his past relationships in his mind, one by one, sorting them into pre- and post-Olivia-claim. And realized that every relationship started after the claim had been set that he’d tried to turn into more than friendship had ended the same way – badly – and all of those bad endings had been because of the claim’s hold on him. Even his initial hook-up with Lisa had been initially pre-Olivia, which is probably why Lisa had ever let him in her door at all.

He couldn’t blame Olivia for having run off. But he realized now that he also couldn’t blame himself for the emotional wreckage he’d been wreaking ever since. He couldn’t break the claim without Olivia being present, as he needed her consent to end it, as he’d needed her admission of validity to make the claim binding to begin with. But he hadn’t been able to find Olivia, so the claim had simply…festered, like an untreated wound. And, as a result, it had reached out and subtly poisoned every potentially romantic relationship Dean had tried to have for the past 16 years.

A sudden sour taste in his mouth made Dean realize that he was about to vomit again, and he grabbed the wastebasket just in time.

***

In the hallway outside Dean’s door, Cas paused, then knocked as he heard Dean retching. “Dean? Are you all right?”

A few seconds passed, then, “C’mon in, Cas.”

Cas turned the doorknob and walked in as he opened the door, taken a bit aback at Dean’s pallor. He walked to Dean’s side, and tapped Dean’s forehead gently. Dean’s nausea passed immediately.

“Oh, hey, man, thanks.”

“Dean. Shouldn’t you be with Olivia?” Cas asked, his blue eyes showing concern for both of them.

“Sam’s with her. I expanded the claim to include him, because I honestly don’t know if I can do much, Cas. I’m pretty well tied in knots here, and it’s all my fault.”

Cas sighed, watching Dean once again try to shoulder the entire weight of the world.

“Dean, I don’t know much about what happened between you and Olivia all those years ago. And I don’t need to know. It’s not important. What is important is that Olivia has forgiven you – or did you forget that the first thing she did upon seeing you was to give you a hug? If she’s forgiven you, Dean, why can’t you forgive yourself?”

Dean nodded. “I know, Cas. I think part of the problem is that I don’t even know everything I did to Liv, so even if she’s forgiven it, I can’t. I need to know. So, once Sam and I get Liv through this cycle, I think Liv and I need to talk, get things out in the open. And I know I need to break the claim, once and for all.

“By the way, Cas, I need to tell you something about that….” And then Dean felt his throat closing.

“Dean?”

“Ca…” Dean gasped, not able to breathe as the claim punished him for trying to form forbidden words. His mind skittered back from the thought of telling Cas anything, and his throat relaxed immediately.

“Dean?” Cas peered at Dean intently, concerned, but Dean shook his head.

“It’ll have to…wait, Cas. But after…when I can….I’ll find you, okay?”

Cas nodded, and put his hand gently on Dean’s shoulder. “Okay, Dean.”

“Thanks, man.”

***


	9. Expanded Relationships, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean lets Sam in on his thoughts.

Dean hesitated outside the door to Sam’s room, but he couldn’t hear anything now, so he knocked softly.

“Come in, Dean,” Sam called.

He entered, then stopped in his tracks at the sight of Olivia curled up in the nest of blankets and pillows that Sam had made for her on the bed, sound asleep. Sam, wearing just his bathrobe, was sitting in his comfy reading chair with a book.

“She okay?” Dean asked.

“For now,” Sam nodded. “I’m glad you’re here, though, Dean. I’m running out of creative ways to bring an omega female to orgasm. She sleeps for a little bit between them, but when the next one hits, you’re up, bud.”

“Okay. Sorry I skipped out for a bit.”

“Nah, I get it. You’ve always taken on more responsibility, more blame, more guilt, more shame, than anyone else, Dean. You really gotta stop doing that, man.” Sam smiled at his brother.

“Yeah. Hey, Sam, I’ve been doing some thinking.”

“Yeah? ‘Sup, Dean?”

“I don’t think I ever realized, until today, what having this claim still active actually meant, Sam. I just went on acting like it didn’t exist, but it was always there, in the back of my head. And having it there put limitations on me, Sam, that I never meant to have. And I can only say these things to you, now, because we expanded the claim to include you.

“But I am so proud of you, Sam. Of everything you’ve done, and how you always try to make things better, and of the man you’ve become. You’re my best friend, Sam, not just my brother, and I love you. And for all the times I’ve pushed you away, or been irritable or grumpy, when I should’ve been there for you, I’m sorry, man.

“I’m gonna talk to Cas, and to Jack, too. I can’t yet, because the claim blocks it there, but I mean to break the claim, Sam. And I thought you should know.” Dean flushed a little, and stared at the floor.

Sam was shell-shocked. “Dean…you’re saying that claiming Olivia essentially kept you from saying ‘I love you’ to anyone else, for 16 years?”

“Claiming her, and keeping it active, without her being around to temper it, yeah. ‘I love you’ or anything similar.

"I think…I know, Sam, that it’s screwed me up, man. Lisa, Cassie, Jo. Basically every romantic relationship I ever tried to have. Maybe even the non-romantic ones. Hell, look at my relationships with you, Cas, Jack, Benny, Bobby. Maybe even mom, I dunno.”

Sam thought back to how Dean was before he’d claimed Olivia. He’d been a little messed up, sure, but so was Sam; the way they’d been raised, on the road almost their whole lives, that would have messed up anyone. But yeah, before the claim, Dean had been different. He’d said ‘I love you’ readily and often, never hesitated to tell Sam he was proud of him. And after, never. Not once that Sam could remember, except during the Trials. Even then, Dean had not said ‘I love you’, but that he couldn’t turn the tide without Sam, would never put anyone or anything else ahead of Sam, and that Sam’s fears about letting Dean down weren’t true. And he’d hugged Sam and told him to “let it go, brother,” but that wasn’t the same thing as 'I love you.'

And then Sam realized that what he’d always thought was Dean closing him out, had really been the claim, closing Dean in.

“Shit, Dean. Man, I’m sorry.”

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little short, sorry. Dean and Olivia, next. :)


	10. Expanded Relationships, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean's worried. Six days in, Olivia's cycle doesn't seem to be abating; she's losing too much weight, and he and Sam are exhausted from seeing to her needs.

Dean was exhausted, worried about Sam and himself, and flat-out frightened for Olivia.

It had been six days since Olivia had been brought back to the bunker by Jack, who had thought Cas could help her with her “existential crisis.” Which had turned out to be not so existential, and, in truth, something that Cas could do nothing about. Olivia, an omega female, was entering a heat cycle, her first after stopping cycle-suppressing drugs suddenly. She’d told Sam her cycle normally lasted 3 days, but it had already been double that, and the waves of fever that could be suppressed only by reaching orgasm showed no signs of abating.

Dean and Sam were taking turns, in shifts of about 2 hours each, helping Olivia attain the necessary level of sexual stimulation to keep the fever at bay, alternating with cold baths and Tylenol. But where he and Sam at least got to take breaks, rest, get something to eat, etc., because they could switch off and take over for the other, Olivia was being tormented unceasingly by the chemicals racing through her body. Chemicals which Cas had explained were “necessary ingredients” and couldn’t be purged from her system, but which under normal circumstances would be considered deadly toxins. Sam and Dean were making sure that Olivia got plenty of water, but she couldn’t eat without vomiting, and got hardly any rest.

Dean sat on the edge of Sam’s bed, studying Olivia’s already small body with concern. She was losing weight, already looking gaunt. She’d had almost no fat on her when she’d arrived, and there was none, now. The fever had her in its grip, and it was consuming her, no matter what they tried. This just couldn’t continue much longer. At the moment, she was sleeping, but he knew that she would awaken shortly, as her face started to flush.

Shit. Maybe if he got her into the cold bath now, even before she woke up…. It was a thought, so he lifted her easily and carried her into the bathroom, setting her gently down into the cold water. She sputtered awake.

“Dean! That’s…cold!” She looked at him accusingly.

“I know, Livvy. Sorry, baby, but the fever’s coming back again. Just wanna try to keep it low this go-round, okay?” Dean held her hand and smiled, but Olivia knew he was worried.

“Sssorry, D.” Her teeth began to chatter, and Dean helped her to stand, then carried her back to the bed.

“Where’s Sam, Dean?” Dean thought it was a good sign that she’d noticed Sam was missing.

“He’s in the kitchen, baby. Do you think you could eat, Liv?” Dean asked.

Olivia shook her head and whispered, “No, D. Tea, maybe?”

“Sure, sweetheart.” Dean got the thermos of hot tea from Sam’s desk and poured a few sips into a cup for her, then helped her sit up to drink it. He laid her back against the pillows gently, and put the thermos back. Then he repeated the process with cool water, and helped her to take two Tylenol.

“Cas and Jack went to the store. Jack’s growing again, so he needs everything.” Dean suspected that Olivia wasn’t listening, but he felt the need to make conversation with her about something besides sex…and his guilt.

“You…never…told me….Jack’s story…,” Olivia whispered, and he gave her a startled look, as he realized she was, in fact, listening.

“I guess that’s true. Okay. Huh. Well, Liv, it’s a long story.”

“Figured…that much…four…fathers…one of them…you.” Her teeth chattered, but she was clearly grinning at him, so Dean grinned back.

“Actually, if you really want to be technical, Jack kinda has five fathers. See, his biological father, the one the DNA comes from, is Lucifer, Liv. But at the time, Lucifer was possessing… someone, so the meat suit counts, too, I guess.”

Olivia’s eyes were wide with shock. “That sweet….nerdy….teenager…that you…allow…to drive…your Baby….is… the Anti-Christ?” She shivered, and Dean covered her with a blanket.

“No, Liv. He’s a Nephilim – half-human, half-Archangel – but he’s _not_ the Anti-Christ. And he’s not evil. Jack’s a good kid. He was heavily influenced before birth by his mom, who was a very good person but died giving birth to him, and by Cas, and since birth by Cas, Sam, and me. Lucifer’s biological contribution doesn’t really enter into it. Nature versus nurture, and nurture’s winning.”

“D, how…old is…Jack?” Jack looked to be about 17-18, and if _that_ were the case, and it was true that Dean had helped raise him since his birth…then Dean would have had to have been keeping some _serious_ secrets from her when they were hunting together before the claim.

Dean smiled at her. “He’s only three years old, Livvy. Nephilim, particularly those spawned by Archangels, grow fast. Jack was an infant for about five minutes.”

Olivia relaxed.

“Liv, I know I’ve hurt you. Many times, in many ways. But I’ve never lied to you, and I’ve never hidden anything from you. I need you to believe that.”

Olivia nodded. “I do, Dean.”

Dean smiled, but then saw the flush starting to creep up Olivia’s cheeks again. He handed her a bottle of water with a terse order to “drink!” then slipped off his robe and slid into bed next to her.

For her part, Olivia could only be grateful to Sam and Dean, and there was no way to remain embarrassed about nudity around them, after what seemed like an eternity, but was probably more like a week (she'd lost track awhile ago), of the two of them alternating in giving her the constant sexual stimulation an omega female needed to lower the heat cycle fever. So when Dean slid in next to her, she simply scooted over a bit, and turned to face him, sipping from the water bottle obediently. His being an alpha, her alpha for that matter, until the claim was broken, didn’t enter into it now, though she’d admit it had at the beginning. All her love and affection for the Winchester brothers would have been insufficient to get her past her mortification over essentially showing up on their doorstep demanding sex, had it not been for the alpha-omega bond of the claim, expanded to include Sam.

She wanted the claim broken after, now that she knew it could be broken. Dean had explained to her what the claim’s strictures had done to both of them, and she knew it wasn’t healthy to keep it in place. Dishonoring and ignoring it had never worked, and she hadn’t realized how hard it had been on Dean until Sam had confirmed some details for her. But for now, as Dean’s hands started moving gently on her overheated skin, she could only appreciate its benefits.

“Dean?”

Dean looked at her, surprised she was still lucid enough to say his name, with the fever rising, and as hot as she was to his touch. “Yeah, Liv?”

“Love you.”

“I know, Livvy. Love you, too, baby.”

“I think it might be winding down, Dean. I’m thinking more clearly.” She gasped as his hand brushed over a sensitive spot on her hip.

“Yeah? Good. Maybe you’ll enjoy this more, then.” He grinned up at her before lowering his head to suckle her nipple, and she arched her back, crying out softly.

Olivia twisted her fingers in Dean’s hair, unsure if she wanted to hold him in place, pull him closer, or push him away. Not that it mattered. Dean knew her body well, maybe almost too well, at this point. If she pushed him away from her breasts, he’d just find some other spot. He and Sam both had been all about her pleasure this week, and she loved them for it.

And then Dean slid down further and found her clit with his tongue, and she couldn’t think at all.

  



	11. Expanded Relationships, Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia's cycle over, she wakes up, and is taken for a tour of the bunker and some breakfast by Cas.

Olivia woke slowly to the soft sound of low, tuneless humming. She opened her eyes, and was surprised to see Cas sitting in Sam’s comfy reading chair with a book, apparently the source of the humming. She glanced around and was even more surprised to _not_ see either Sam or Dean.

“Cas?” She was a little hoarse, and had to repeat herself to be heard. “Cas?”

The angel looked up and smiled at her. “Liv, you’re awake. Sam and Dean are sleeping. Are you hungry?”

Olivia thought about it, and decided maybe she could eat. She nodded. “Water?”

Cas helped her sit up, and she realized she had on one of Sam’s old, huge sweatshirts from his college days, which honestly could have wrapped around her three times. Cas handed her a glass of water with a straw, and watched her sip. She handed it back.

“Your fever broke this morning at around 2 am,” Cas told her. “Dean asked me to sit here and keep an eye on you, while he and Sam got some rest.”

“Thank you, Cas. I’m sorry Dean woke you so early.”

“Oh, I don’t sleep, Liv. Angel, remember?” Cas smiled, and Olivia found herself smiling back.

How long…?”

“Thirteen days, Liv. It’s been quite a haul. You’ve been pretty out of it for most of that time. Dean said you had a little lucid moment on day 6, but then you crashed out, and if I hadn’t been here, we might have lost you. But Jack and I were able to heal you, so, no worries, you’ll be fine.”

“You and…Jack?”

“Yes. You might remember, Dean told you that Jack is a Nephilim? He has…energy, and that can be used to boost powers that other angels have. My own powers run toward healing, and when Jack’s energy boosts me, I can do more than I could on my own, up to just short of raising the dead. Which you were never close to, so…. Hungry? What would you like, Liv?”

“Something bland, I think, would be safest, until cordial relations with my stomach have been re-established.”

“Wise. Will you be all right on your own if I disappear to the kitchen for about five minutes?”

“Um…Could you point me to the bathroom, first?”

“I’m not sure you’d be able to get there on your own, Liv, but I can carry you there, certainly.” Cas lifted her as if she weighed nothing and carried her into the bathroom.

“Thanks. I’ll be fine in here, I’ll just stay put until you come back.”

“All right. No showers, don’t want you slipping, but as long as you’re careful, I think it’s okay for you to be alone in here for a bit. I’ll be back.” And with that, Cas slipped out the door and down the hall.

Olivia looked in the mirror, and realized that was a mistake. She used the toilet, washed her hands, and threw some water on her face, then tried again to assess her reflection. She was shocked by her sunken eyes and cheeks. She’d always been small and slight, but this was ridiculous. She was rail thin. She almost looked like a concentration camp survivor, or someone in need of treatment for severe anorexia.

She raised Sam’s sweatshirt, and realized she could count every rib. _Jesus, Mary, and Joseph_.

She idly scratched an itch on her arm, and realized that there was a bandage on it. She wondered just how out of it she’d been. She didn’t remember any wounds. She hoped she hadn’t gone wild and somehow hurt someone else. Oddly, there didn’t seem to be any pain from the area beneath the bandage. She couldn’t see any other bandages.

Cas knocked.

“Come in, Cas.”

The angel came in, pushing a wheelchair with a warm blanket over the back. “I thought this might be easier than carrying you everywhere, and this way, you can see more of the bunker than just Sam’s room.” He helped her settle into the chair, putting the footrests up, and covered her legs carefully with the blanket. Then he pushed her out into the hall, and then another hall, and another, and suddenly they came out into a large room filled with cars, including her own pick-up truck.

“This is the garage, obviously. I had Jack move your truck inside after the second day; I hope you don’t mind, but it was going to rain, and we don’t really like to have vehicles sitting out by the front door for any length of time. Why hide a door and then leave your car by it to point to it?”

Olivia nodded. “If Dean lets Jack drive Baby, he must be a good driver, so I’m sure it’s fine for him to drive my truck.”

“Well, actually, Baby was the first car I _ever_ drove. Dean taught me how to drive in Baby.” Jack stepped around a vehicle, and smiled at Olivia. “I hear you’re feeling better. No one would tell me what was actually _wrong_ , but I did get to help Cas heal you at one point, did he tell you?”

Olivia smiled. Dean was right; Jack was a good kid. “Yes, Jack, he did tell me. Thank you.”

“Oh, you’re welcome. Hey, Cas, is it okay if I go to the school this afternoon? There’s a football game, and I’m still trying to figure out the rules.”

“I think that’s fine, Jack, but why don’t you take your bicycle and get some exercise, instead of driving one of the cars? Dean might still be asleep, and you shouldn’t take Baby without asking, and some of these other cars haven’t been driven in awhile and might have issues.”

“Yeah, sure, Cas, I can bike over, that’d be _great_!” And he darted off.

“I see what you mean by ‘he has energy,’ Cas,” Olivia giggled.

“He sometimes reminds me of a character in one of the children’s books that his mother bought for him before he was born. Are you familiar with Tigger, from the Winnie-the-Pooh books, Liv?”

Olivia giggled harder, and Cas grinned.

“Anyway, I thought you should know what we had done with your truck, and that you might be interested in seeing some of the vintage cars stored down here. This place was abandoned in the late 1950s, after being used for about 20 years as a base of operations for a group to which Sam and Dean’s grandfather, Henry Winchester, belonged, called the Men of Letters, and except for Baby and your truck, all of these vehicles belonged to the group as well.”

“They’re beautiful. I bet Dean went nuts when he found them.”

“Actually, the only car Dean ever drives….”

“…is Baby, yeah, I know, Cas.” Olivia rolled her eyes, but grinned at the angel. “What does Sam drive?”

“Well, Sam had a Dodge Charger for awhile, but he usually just rides along with Dean.”

“And you? Do you drive, Cas?”

“I do. I have a pick-up as well, actually.” Cas smiled at her.

“Anyway, we should get some food in you. I put your breakfast on the table in the kitchen, so we can just head back there, next.” Cas swung the wheelchair around, and they headed back down a hall, then another, then another, until Olivia was utterly confused, as all the hallways looked exactly the same to her, and then they were suddenly in the kitchen, as distinguished by the appliances. Cas pushed the chair right up to the place he’d set for Olivia, and sat in the next chair over.

“Do angels eat, Cas?” Olivia asked, as she spooned up some scrambled eggs.

“We can, though I generally prefer not to,” Cas told her.

Olivia ate some eggs, but found that after not eating for so long, she had very little appetite, and Cas agreed it was better not to force it.

“Oh, I forgot. Cas, I meant to ask, what’s this bandage on my arm?” Olivia asked.

“After Jack and I healed you, it was clear that you needed an alternate source of nutrition. You were unable to eat, and the fever was draining you. So Sam started an IV and we had a saline and nutritive dextrose drip going until your fever broke early this morning. Then Sam took the IV out, and bandaged your arm.”

Olivia scrubbed her face with her fingers and yawned.

“I expect you’ll be tired for awhile. Why don’t we head back to Sam’s room and get you tucked in for a nap?” Cas asked, kindly. Olivia just nodded, suddenly too tired to talk. Although she’d really done nothing but sit up, chat with Cas, and eat a few bites of egg, she was exhausted.

As Cas wheeled her into Sam’s room, she suddenly thought to ask, “Cas? If this is Sam’s room, where’s Sam?”

Cas lifted her out of the chair and into the bed, and pulled a blanket over her.

“Sam is in my room. Although I don’t sleep, I do sometimes find it comfortable to stretch out on a bed, so we use it as a guest room sometimes. But it’s kind of a small bed, so this was the better option for Sam and Dean to be able to take care of you, and while I expect you’ll probably end up in my room eventually, or one of the other rooms, so Sam can have his own bed back, there’s no point in trying to wake Sam or Dean right now, even if I _had_ made coffee.” Cas grinned at her.

“Now you get some sleep, Liv. You may not remember it, but you’ve been through a lot, and you need the rest.”

Olivia obediently shut her eyes, and fell asleep immediately. Cas sighed and sat back down in Sam’s comfy reading chair to watch her, just in case.

***


	12. Expanded Relationships, Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia's sad and worn out. Sam's in a quiet mood. But Dean's in a rare good mood, and Cas is wondering why.

By the time Olivia next awakened, Sam and Dean were both awake as well, and Dean was cooking dinner. Cas told her to stay put, put his book down, and slipped out into the hall, returning a few moments later with Sam.

Cas went to find out what Dean was making, at Olivia’s request, surmising (correctly) that she probably wanted a few moments with Sam.

“Hey, Sam.” Olivia stared at the blanket.

Sam lifted her chin with a finger, and smiled at her. “Hey, Liv.”

She smiled back, but dropped her chin again as soon as he let it go.

“I want to thank you, Sam. I realize it was a lot of work for you and Dean to take care of me for nearly two weeks. I didn’t know it would go on that long, really, Sam, I’m sorry…”

Sam stopped her. “Liv, Liv, Liv, stop, stop, it’s fine.” He sat next to her on the bed, and gathered her close, feeling her lean against him. “Really, Livvy, it’s fine. Shhh, now.” He stroked her hair as she started to weep, all the emotions that had been locked inside for so long draining out of her at once.

“I’m sssorry, Sam, I don’t usually cry, but…”

“Shh, I know, Liv. Let it go, honey. It’s okay. Just let it out, I’m here.” Sam rocked Olivia gently and just let her cry.

Cas peeked in the door, but Sam shook his head silently, so Cas closed the door and went back down the hall to the kitchen, where Dean was dancing in place in front of the stove while he cooked to loud rock music from his boombox on the table.

Dean looked up from the frying pan in which he was sautéing the pork chops. “Everything okay?”

“Olivia’s still tired. She’s crying, but Sam’s got her.”

“Good, she’ll feel better. You said she was okay earlier, when she woke up while we were sleeping, right?”

“Yes, Dean. I got a few bites of scrambled egg into her and gave her a little tour of the bunker, showed her the garage so she would know her truck was okay. She talked to Jack for a minute. She just got tired, she’s worn out.”

Dean nodded and flipped the pork chops, then set a pot of water to boil with some butter to make mashed potatoes.

“Cas, you wanna make a salad for Sam, and whoever else wants rabbit food?”

“Okay, Dean.” Cas went to the refrigerator and took out lettuce and other vegetables to chop for a salad. He deliberately chose to work at a counter on the other side of the room from Dean, so as not to get in Dean’s way. He knew that Dean was fond of his own personal space. He also knew that Dean wouldn’t eat salad if the lettuce bit him first.

So, it surprised him when Dean was suddenly standing next to him, handing him a bowl of shredded cheddar cheese.

“I thought I’d put some cheese in the potatoes, so as long as I was doing it, I shredded some for the salad, too.”

Dean smiled at Cas, with a rare real smile that went all the way to his clear green eyes, then danced back over to the stove. Cas watched him for a moment, then shrugged, figuring he was reading too much into a moment’s odd behavior, and went back to tossing chopped vegetables – and cheese shreds – into the large wooden salad bowl.

Cas heard Jack calling greetings from the front door of the bunker, and yelled back to tell him to come to the kitchen. A moment later, Jack came in, carrying a large, flat box, which he set on the table, next to the boombox.

“I brought dessert!”

Dean grinned. “That had better be pie!”

“Of course! Apple!” Jack grinned back.

Dean grabbed Jack’s hand and spun him into the dance, and Jack went with it, giggling. Cas stopped his chopping, and turned to watch them be goofy, grinning, and then suddenly Dean grabbed Cas’ hand and spun him into it, too, and for a moment, all three of them were dancing and laughing.

And then the smoke detector sounded an alarm because the pork chops needed attention, and Dean had to turn his attention back to the food, adding more oil to the too-dry pan. Jack went to put the rest of his things in his room, and Cas stared for a moment at Dean’s back, wondering wistfully. Then he turned back to the salad, finishing it with a vinaigrette dressing and some walnut pieces.

“Salad’s done. Anything else you need me to do, Dean?” Cas asked.

“Nope, I got everything else. Thanks, man. Go wash up, and let everyone know dinner’s in five.” And then Dean _smiled_ again.

“Okay, Dean.” Cas headed off to the bathroom to wash up for dinner, knocking on Jack’s door on the way to let him know about dinner. He washed his hands, and ran a comb through his as-always unruly hair, not that he could tell afterward. Then he went back down by Sam’s room, and knocked gently.

“Sam? Dean says dinner in five, get washed up.”

“Okay, Cas.” Sam’s voice was muffled, but Cas knew he’d heard, at least.

Cas went back out to the War Room, where everyone usually ate, and found Dean setting the table. “Need help?”

“Nope, you can have a seat, I’m getting the food now, and anyone too slow can have cold potatoes.”

Dean spun around in a circle, and disappeared into the kitchen. He returned with a platter of pork chops and a bowl of mashed potatoes, which he set down on the table, then disappeared again, to return this time with the salad and a bowl of stuffing, which also went on the table.

“Help yourself, Cas, I’m not waiting!” He grinned at Cas as he speared a pork chop with his fork.

Cas heard footsteps behind him, so he turned, and saw Sam pushing Olivia in the wheelchair. He stood and moved a chair away from the table, so Sam could push her right up to the place setting. Sam looked around and saw that Dean was eating.

“Not waiting for Jack?”

“Nope. Cas told him, right, Cas?”

“Yes, Dean. I’m sure he’ll be right out, Sam, I don’t see a reason to wait.”

Sam got Olivia’s plate and asked her what she’d like, then fixed her plate for her and brought it to her. Then he did the same for himself, as Cas fixed his own plate.

Just as Cas took the first bite, Jack came in. “Sorry I’m late. Phone call,” he explained.

Dean waved him in, expansively. “Get some food, kiddo.”

Jack did so, and started to eat.

Olivia wanted to eat, it all smelled good. But her stomach was telling her no, so she miserably kind of pushed her food around on the plate to make it look like there was less than there was, and tried eating just the potatoes. Sam noticed, but didn’t say anything. He, just got up, went to the kitchen, and returned in a few moments with a glass of green liquid with a straw. He set it down in front of Olivia without comment, and went back to eating his own food.

Olivia picked up the glass and peered at the contents, then tried a sip. While she had no idea what was in it, she thought the drink was delicious, and in a few moments, it was gone. She set the glass back down, and smiled gratefully at Sam. He nodded, and smiled back.

Dean finished first, to no one’s surprise, and went into the kitchen, returning with Jack’s apple pie. He cut himself a slice, smiled at it, and dug in.

“Mmmm. Pie!”

Olivia snorted quietly. She thought she saw Sam’s lips twitch, but couldn’t be sure.

Some things never changed. Thank God.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More fluff. Plot coming soon.


	13. Breaking Up Is Not, In Fact, Hard To Do - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cas is confused. Dean and Olivia resolve things. And Sam overhears the wrong thing.

A week had gone by. Olivia was walking on her own, and sleeping a normal eight hours per night, in a guest room (she didn’t want to take Cas’ room, any more than she wanted to take Sam’s). She was eating, and no longer looked like she needed therapy or an intervention for overzealous weight loss. She spoke with Cas often, telling him jokes, then explaining them to him so he understood why they were funny. She went on walks with Jack, both inside and outside the bunker, learning her way around and building her stamina back up to where it had been.

But, while he said nothing about it, Cas noticed that she had only the most minimal contact she could manage with Sam and Dean, together, or separately. Sam was in the same quiet, contemplative mood he’d been in since the day Olivia’s fever had broken, but Dean… . Well, Dean was in the best mood Cas had seen him in since that time Dean killed Hitler.

And Cas didn’t know why, but he seemed to be getting a lot of Dean’s attention, suddenly. And Dean kept smiling at him. That infectious, pure, sweet smile that lit up Dean’s whole face, the one that was normally so rare, you could think you’d imagined it, that smile was suddenly on Dean’s face _all the time_ – and directed at _Cas_.

It was almost like someone, somewhere, had flicked a switch and turned on a light inside of Dean. He wasn’t irritable, he wasn’t grumbling at everyone, he was singing in the shower (in key!), and dancing in the kitchen. In short, it just wasn’t the Dean that Cas knew. And it scared him, just a little bit. Sunny, happy, dancing, Dean? That wasn’t _Dean_.

He didn’t begrudge Dean any happiness; far from it. He just wanted to understand it, but he didn’t. And it was unnerving.

***

Olivia knocked on Sam’s door, and waited.

And waited.

And knocked again.

“Sam? Are you in there?”

“Hey, Liv,” Dean said, behind her, in a cheery voice. “Sam went running about 10 minutes ago, so I expect he’ll be back in about 20.”

“Oh. Thanks, Dean.” Olivia nodded, glancing at Dean, then started to turn and walk away, when she felt Dean’s hand, laid gently on her arm.

“Liv? Are you okay?” Dean’s voice deepened with concern.

Olivia nodded, but couldn’t meet his eyes.

“No, you’re not. C’mon, come and talk to me,” Dean took her hand and drew her into the room he and Sam had set up for movie nights, where a comfortable sofa was available. He led her to it, and sat down next to her, putting his arm around her shoulder gently.

“What is it, Livvy?”

“Dean, I…I don’t even know. I feel _stupid_.” Olivia scrubbed her fingers through her hair, her trademarked frustration move.

“Liv, you’ve never been stupid. Talk to me, Livvy. What’s wrong?” Dean peered at her, trying to gauge her level of upset.

“It’s just…I get it now, Dean. I get what you mean when you say you don’t know what went on between us, so you can’t get past it. Because now I feel the same way. Your fever was bad, but it was over after two nights. Mine went haywire for _thirteen days and nights_ , and I don’t have any memory of any of it, except one brief conversation with you that I guess took place on day six? I don’t know what you or Sam had to do to get me through it all, and it makes my skin crawl not to know, but at the same time, I can’t _imagine_ having to sit here next to either of you and have you tell me about any of it. I don’t want to know, but I feel like if I don’t find out, I’ll never be able to look you or Sam in the eye again, and I….” Olivia dissolved into tears, her face crumpling, and Dean pulled her gently into a hug, holding her close while she cried.

“Yeah, I get it, Liv. Shhh, it’s okay. Let it out, baby. I’ve got you, it’s okay, Livvy,” Dean whispered reassurances, knowing it didn’t really matter what he said, so long as it was comforting. He just held her and patted her back gently, and let her get it out of her system. When she finally pulled back, sat up, and wiped her eyes, he let her, but continued to keep his arm around her.

“Liv, we did what we had to do to keep you alive. You want to know if we had sex? Yeah, Liv, we did, because that’s what you needed. We held you, and we took care of you. Livvy, you could have _died_. You almost did. Cas and Jack brought you back from that edge, and Sam and I kept you from going over it again. Because we love you, Liv. Never doubt that, sweetheart. Don’t be ashamed of fighting to stay alive, Liv, no matter what it took, because that’s all you did.” Dean leaned over and kissed her forehead.

“You don’t need the details of how many times we touched you, or where; you can pretty much take it as certain that we probably touched you _everywhere_. And if you wanted the details, I don’t know that we could tell you more than that, Liv, to be honest. It all kind of blends together in my head, now. That conversation you remember from day six? I was already exhausted, then. By the end, when you were finally resting and the fever had broken, when Sam had taken out the IV and bandaged your arm, and we knew that you were safe? It was all I could do to get to my own bed and collapse. _But it doesn’t matter_. What matters is that you’re still _here_ , still fighting. And we’re glad that you are. Okay?”

Olivia nodded. “Thank you, D.”

“Absolutely, Livvy. Look, you did the same for me. Two nights or thirty, doesn’t matter. I was out of my mind, out of control, I hurt you, and you stayed with me and kept me alive anyway. And, like you, I thought I needed the details to be able to forgive myself. But you know what, Liv? I don’t. I just need to know that you forgive me for having caused you pain.”

“Yes, Dean, of course, I forgave you already. Then. I told you that,” Olivia smiled up at him, then kissed his cheek gently.

“I know you told me that you forgave me, Liv. In fact, you told me there was nothing to forgive.

“But then you snuck out of Bobby’s house, and ran off. And I didn’t know whether it was just a trust issue, or if I had done something truly terrible to you, because I didn’t know what I had done. So, while I don’t need details of what I did, Liv, I do need to know – _why did you run?_ ”

Olivia nodded. “Yeah, okay. That’s fair, Dean. I didn’t run because you hurt me. I didn’t run because we’d had sex, or because of anything you physically did to me during sex, okay? I need to know that you believe that, D, first off.”

“Okay, Livvy. So, why _did_ you run?”

“I knew going in that you were likely to mark me. And you _did_ , the very first time, that first night. You were gentle with it, but you bit down hard enough to mark. And the next morning, outside the thrift shop where you bought me the scarf to hide it, we talked about it. At first, you said you would never claim me against my will. But when I said that you absolutely would claim me, and laughed, _you agreed that you_ _would_. And that scared me, D. But I stayed with you anyway. And what happened, D? That very next night? Your inner wolf took over, and set the claim, and forced me to admit its validity. And yeah, you were horrified when you came back to yourself, but I couldn’t be _sure_ , Dean.

“You said you wouldn’t hold me to it, but you never said then that you’d break it. I had no idea that a claim _could_ be broken. I knew I could dishonor it, but I thought it was a permanent thing that I was stuck with forever. And I also knew something else, D.”

“What was that, Livvy?”

“I knew that if we talked about it, really talked about it, and you asked - not your inner wolf making demands, _but you, asking_ – Dean, I knew that I would stay, because I did, and do, love you.

“But I don’t love you as a mate; you’re like my brother. So staying would have made us both miserable. And I didn’t know what you’d do, and you’d said that yes, you would likely claim me, and then you did, so… so I ran.”

“Yeah. I get it, Liv.”

“There’s one more thing, D.”

“Okay, what?”

“The other reason I couldn’t stay with you…is that I was in love with someone _else_ , D. And while I knew that the claim would keep me from that person, even if you weren’t enforcing it, I didn’t feel right staying with you when I had those feelings for someone else….

“ _Particularly given who that ‘someone else’ was_.”

Olivia studied her hands, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Sam.”

Olivia nodded, miserably.

Dean took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Oh, Livvy.”

“I’m sorry, D. I should’ve told you.”

Dean shook his head.

“No, Liv, you had a right to keep your secrets. I had no right to set the claim. I’m sorry, sweetheart. It’s my fault, all of it. Inner wolf, out of control, I still had no right. I just wish that we’d had this conversation sixteen years ago. But I get it, Liv, I do. I broke your trust, I set a claim against your will, and forced you to admit its validity. I was wrong. You ran because you saw no other way out, and I didn’t tell you there was one.

“And I could have, Liv. We were in the car, on the road, for _hours_. It’s not that we _couldn’t_ have talked; it’s just that we _didn’t_. I kept thinking it was a conversation better suited for face to face, that I didn’t want to have to watch the road when I could be watching you, so I kept putting it off. So, that’s on me.

“Shit, Liv, I’m sorry. Again.” Dean sighed.

For a long moment, they were both silent, thinking of the way things might have been. Then Olivia sat back and turned to face Dean squarely, looking him in the eye.

“Dean, we both made mistakes. We were young, and stupid. If there’s anything left to forgive, let’s do that now, and get it over with, once and for all, okay? _I forgive you. You forgive me. Done._ Yes?”

Dean nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. Now, when Sam gets back from his run, I think it’s high time that we all sat down and did whatever we need to do to break this claim, so that we can all get back to our lives. No more misery. No more stewing about what could have been, what might have been, blah blah blah. That’s just over and done, and I won’t have it. Agreed?”

“Yeah, Liv. Agreed,” Dean smiled at her, and she smiled back.

And in the hallway, Sam sighed silently.

***


	14. Breaking Up Is Not, In Fact, Hard To Do - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam gives in to frustration. Cas fixes it.

Sam stopped in his room to grab a towel and a pair of sweatpants. Then he headed for the showers, turned the water on, stripped while waiting for it to get hot. He stepped under the stream and let the spray do its work on his muscles, his mind racing.

So, Liv just wanted to get back to her life? Well, fine. Go, Livvy. I’ve done fine without you for sixteen fuckin’ years. What’s the rest of my life?

_Shit_.

“ _Dammit_ , Liv.”

Sam balled his hand into a fist and slammed it into the tiled wall.

***

Cas poured a cup of coffee and doctored it, then sat at the kitchen table to sip at it. He didn’t really enjoy the flavors of the molecules, but there were times even an angel just needed the caffeine.

Sam stomped in, storm clouds rolling across his face. Cas didn’t comment. Sam would tell him if he wanted him to know. If Sam didn’t volunteer the information, Cas didn’t want to intrude. He simply sat, sipped his coffee, and waited.

Sam poured himself a cup of coffee, forgot to doctor it, and sipped, making a face. He added the flavored creamer he preferred, and sipped again. His face smoothed out a fraction. He turned, then, and saw Cas.

“Oh, hey, Cas. Sorry, didn’t see you, man.”

“Hello, Sam.”

Sam held up his hand, indicating the bloody, likely broken, knuckles. “Think you could do me a favor, Cas?”

“Of course, Sam.” Cas stood, walked over, and tapped Sam’s wrist.

“Thanks, man.” Cas nodded, and returned to his seat.

Sam sighed and washed the blood off at the kitchen sink, then crossed the room and sat down at the table, as well. Sam set his mug on the table, and hunched over in his chair, rubbing his hands together between his knees, elbows resting on his thighs.

“Cas?” Sam kept his head down, eyes on his hands.

“Yes, Sam?”

“How do you do it?”

“Do what, Sam?”

“How do you wait so patiently?”

“What do you mean, Sam?” Cas asked.

“For Dean, to get his head out of his ass.”

“Practice, Sam. Years of practice.” Sam snorted a laugh, and looked up. Cas grinned.

“Yeah, I get that, Cas.” Sam scrubbed his face with his fingers, and blinked. He leaned back in his chair.

Cas held up his mug, and Sam picked up his own and clinked it against Cas’ in a mock toast. They sat and sipped their coffee companionably.

***


	15. Breaking Up Is Not, In Fact, Hard To Do - Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia chats with Jack. Cas chats with Dean. Dean chats with Sam, and Sam makes an important admission.

In the hallway outside the bunker’s library, Olivia took a deep breath, and glanced through the door. No one in sight; good. Though she supposed either Sam or Jack, the usual library occupants, could be behind a column or in the stacks, they weren’t sitting at the large center table, and there was no clutter there to document anyone’s current work. She really wanted something to read, but didn’t want to interrupt research or studying efforts.

She slipped in, and found the fiction stack, skimming the titles for something appealing. She had just pulled out a paperback romance novel to read the back cover, when she heard footsteps. She glanced up, and spotted Jack, unslinging his backpack from his shoulder onto the table, then starting to rummage through it.

Taking the paperback with her, she stepped out of the stacks, and smiled.

“Hello, Jack. Studying?” she asked.

Jack looked up, and smiled back. “Hey, Liv, yeah. Sam’s got me studying President Rooney’s administration, and there’s a test coming up. Did you know my mom used to work for the president?”

“No, I didn’t, Jack. No one’s really told me much about your mother. Her name was Kelly, right?”

“Yes. Kelly Kline. She was one of President Rooney’s aides. Until….” Jack sighed.

“I’m sorry you didn’t get to know her, Jack.”

“Well, not while she was _alive_. I did meet her when I went to Heaven, though. She’s great,” Jack said. He took a notebook and pen out of his backpack and sat down at the table. “Sorry, Liv, I really need to get to work. Sam’s a tough grader.”

“Okay, Jack. See you later.” Olivia left the library, wondering about the circumstances of Jack’s visit to his mother. She returned to the movie night room, which had the only sofa she’d found in the bunker, and laid down on the couch to read her book, hidden by the back of the sofa from the hallway.

In the hallway just outside the movie night room, Dean, on his way from his bedroom to the kitchen, ran into Sam, on his way from the War Room to the bathroom. Dean smiled at his brother.

“Hey, Sam, this afternoon, after lunch, Liv and I were thinking….”

“Yeah, Dean, I _know_ what the two of you were thinking. Excuse me.” Sam pushed past Dean stiffly and kept walking, even when Dean called after him.

Olivia came to the door. Dean glanced at her, but was really watching Sam, until Sam disappeared into the bathroom.

“D? What the heck was that?” Olivia asked.

“Honestly? Fuck if I know, Liv.” Dean shrugged. “Guess I’ll go start lunch.”

***

Dean stared blankly into the refrigerator, not seeing the contents. Rather, he saw his brother storming off down the hallway. He replayed the incident in his head, knowing that Sam was angry, but failing to understand why. He knew Sam’s mood had been a little _off_ lately, but he’d seen him just this morning, before Sam went running, and he hadn’t been pissed, _then_. So, what had changed between then, and _now_?

Dean sighed.

“Hello, Dean. Coffee?” Dean looked up to see Cas offering him a mug.

“Um, yeah, man, thanks.” Dean shut the refrigerator door, and rubbed his eyes briefly. Cas poured two mugs of coffee, doctored his own, and handed the other off to Dean. Dean nodded gratefully, and sipped.

Cas took his over to the table and sat down. As with Sam, he didn’t pry. If Dean wanted him to know what was going on, he’d say something. So, Cas just sipped his coffee, and waited.

And in a moment, Dean came over and sat down, too.

“Cas? Did I do something to piss Sam off today?”

“Today, Dean?” Cas shrugged. “Not that I know of. Although, Sam did ask me to fix his hand earlier.”

“His hand, Cas? What was wrong with Sam’s hand?”

“Well, between the damaged tile in the shower, and the harm to Sam’s hand, I’d say, though he didn’t tell me, that he punched the wall, Dean.” Cas took another sip.

Dean blinked. “He did what, now?”

“He punched the wall in the shower and broke his knuckle. I fixed it. The knuckle, not the wall.”

Dean sighed. _Shit_.

“All right. Guess I’ll have to talk to him. Thanks, Cas.”

“Dean?”

“Yeah, Cas?”

“Did you want something in the refrigerator? You were staring into it pretty hard when I came in.”

Dean remembered – lunch. “Oh. Yeah. I was gonna make lunch. Right.”

Dean stood up, but then just stayed put, clearly thinking of something other than food.

“Why don’t I do that, while you go talk to Sam?” Cas offered.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Good idea. Thanks, Cas.” Dean walked out.

Cas smiled. Dean _never_ let him cook. Cas picked up the phone to order pizza. He’d let Jack use his truck to go pick it up.

***

Dean paused outside Sam’s room. He took a deep breath and let it slowly, then knocked on the door. “Sam?”

Silence.

“Sammy? You in there?”

Silence.

“C’mon, Sam. I _know_ you’re in there.”

The door opened, and Sam leaned on the doorframe.

“What do you want, Dean?”

“To know what I did to piss you off,” Dean told him, honestly.

Sam looked at Dean, saw the concern, sighed, and let Dean in.

“It’s not anything you did, Dean. I…I overheard you and Liv talking this morning, at least the tail end, and, well, it hurt, that’s all.”

Dean tried to think of something said in that conversation that would have hurt Sam, and came up blank.

“What exactly was it that hurt you, Sam? What did I say?”

“Not you. Liv.”

“Okay, what did _Liv_ say, Sammy?”

“She said something to the effect of she just wants to get back to her own life, so she wants to break the claim.”

“Right. But how does that hurt you, Sam?” Dean was truly puzzled.

Sam gulped, realizing that Dean had no idea how he felt about Olivia, and never had. _Shit_.

“Well…um….”

“Sam? Is there something you’re not telling me? Because I’m not understanding you,” Dean prodded.

Sam closed his eyes and said, as quietly and as fast as possible, “ _I’m in love with Liv, and have been for most of my life, and if you laugh at me, I will kill you_.”

“Why would I laugh?”

Sam’s eyes blinked open, and he was startled to realize that Dean was not, in fact, laughing, but was taking him seriously.

“Liv loves you, too, Sam. I think it’s great.”

“Wait… ** _what_**?”

Dean shrugged. “You guys are good together.”

“But…she said….”

“Yeah, she wants to break the claim. **_My_ **claim, Sam. My sixteen-year-old, never enforced, obtained under duress, _batshit crazy_ , claim, _that I should never have staked_. Why would that piss you off? I would’ve thought you’d be _pleased_ , Sam.”

“But….” Sam sputtered, then went silent.

“Think about what she said, Sam. She didn’t say she wanted to _leave_. She said _she wants her life back_. And she does. So she can choose with whom to spend it, Sam. _She isn’t choosing **me**_.”

“ _ **Holy shit!**_ ”

Dean grinned as Sam’s face lit up. “There it is.”

***


	16. Breaking Up Is Not, In Fact, Hard To Do - Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A claim is broken. A different kind of claim is made. And Cas explains some things to Dean.

Jack returned from the pizza place with the three pizzas Cas had ordered, plus a salad, cheesy garlic bread, and a meatball sub. Cas just shook his head, realizing that the clothes he had just bought for Jack were likely to be too small again in just a couple of weeks. Kid grew like a weed.

The two of them laid out the food in the War Room, and Jack went around to let Olivia, Dean, and Sam know that the food was ready. Eventually, they all met up and chowed down. Then Jack left on his bike to meet some friends, and Cas wandered off to the library to do some research. Which left just Sam, Dean, and Olivia.

Dean was more than ready to break the claim, and suspected Sam and Olivia were as well, but he had to ask them, formally. He cleared his throat.

“Sam? Liv? Are we all ready to do this?”

Olivia and Sam both nodded, but Olivia had a question.

“Dean? Not that I don’t believe you, but I had never heard that a claim could be broken before. Are we _sure_ this will work?” she asked.

Dean nodded. “It’s just really rare, Liv. All parties to the claim must be present, in the same place at the same time, agree to break it formally and verbally. Just as when the claim was first set, when I, or rather, my inner wolf, made the demand verbally, and you admitted its validity verbally. Or, when we expanded the claim, and we all agreed verbally to do so. Now, we just have to agree to break it. So, ready?”

Olivia nodded.

“I’ll start with you, Sam, since you’re the most recent addition.

“Alpha Sam, do you agree that this claim has served all useful purposes, and is ready to be, and should be, broken at this time?”

“Yes, alpha,” Sam replied.

“Omega Olivia, do you agree that this claim has served all useful purposes, and is ready to be, and should be, broken at this time?”

“Yes, alpha,” Olivia replied.

“I, the remaining alpha within this claim, also agree that this claim has served all useful purposes, and is ready to be, and should be, broken at this time, and I consent to the fracture.”

And all of them felt a frisson in the air, and the lifting of a weight, as the claim dissolved.

Dean grinned. “That’s it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a conversation I need to have with a certain angel.” He got up and walked off toward the library.

“It’s about time, jerk!” Sam yelled after him.

Dean flipped him off, and yelled back, “Shut up, bitch!” He kept walking.

Sam and Olivia looked at each other, and grinned. Olivia decided to test the waters.

“Sam?”

“Yeah, Livvy?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“ _I’m in love with you_ , Sam.”

“ _I’m in love with you, too_ , Liv.”

“Oh, my God, Sam! It _worked_!”

“It really did!”

“Oh, thank God!” they said together.

And then suddenly Olivia was in Sam’s arms, and he was kissing her, and she was kissing him back. She didn’t remember having moved, but there they were. Tears were streaming down both their cheeks, as sixteen miserable years apart fell away.

“I’m so sorry, Sam!”

“Shhh, Liv. It’s over, it doesn’t matter.” Sam bent suddenly and picked Olivia up in a bridal carry and carried her, giggling, to his room. Once there, he set her down in his comfy reading chair. She raised her eyebrows, having expected the bed, but he knelt on the floor in front of her, and gently took her hands in his.

“I’m not _ever_ going to do to you what my idiot brother did, Liv. But I will tell you that I’m yours, if you want me, for as long as you want me, for as much as you want from me. Not because ‘I am alpha,’ and ‘you are omega,’ blah blah blah, but because _I love you_.

“Olivia Anne Fortuna, will you love me back, and share this life with me? Not formally (at least for the time being, though I wouldn’t necessarily mind it eventually), but just…being _together_?”

Olivia sniffled, then smiled through the tears.

“Samuel William Winchester, I’m honored that you’d ask. I do love you back. And I do want to be with you. So, yes.”

Olivia reached out, eyes shining, and stroked Sam’s cheek gently. “I _will_ share this life with you, Sam.” He kissed her, and everything was finally right.

***

Meanwhile, in the library, Cas was reading a book on beekeeping, and taking notes. He was just thinking that it might be outdated, and was considering browsing online for something more recent than 1955, when he saw Dean pause in the hallway, just outside the room, apparently lost in thought. Cas watched Dean over the top of the book, waiting to see what he would do next.

Again, Cas wouldn’t make the first move.

***

Dean was having a conversation in his head, but he couldn’t work out exactly what he wanted to say. He’d skirted the issue in his own thoughts so many damn times, he couldn’t come up with words that fit how he felt. He wasn’t sure he knew how he felt, even, the claim having blocked him from even thinking about… _Cas_.

Should he do this now? Or should he think? If he thought about it too much, would he lose the courage to say anything at all? Did he have that much courage? What did he think he needed courage _for_ , even?

Dean’s eyes widened at his own thoughts. He started pacing in the hallway.

Okay, Dean, slow down. Let’s figure out what we’re thinking, first.

  * _It’s Cas. Castiel. Angel of the Lord. Best friend. Yeah_.



With the clearest, most beautiful blue eyes I’ve ever seen.

  * _Wait, what? It’s Cas. He’s family. Wears that ridiculous backward blue tie and trench coat. Seriously, the guy has no fashion sense_.



Does that matter? Cas is hot.

  * _Hot? Where’d that come from? He’s like a brother_.



And he has that black mop of yummy, rumpled, bed-head hair, no matter how many times he combs it.

  * _Yummy?_



Am I…attracted to Cas?

  * _I love Cas. Like a brother_.



Well, no. I don’t love Cas the same way that I love Sam.

  * _But…it’s not a romantic thing. **Is**_ **_it_**?



Isn’t it? Hasn’t it always been, to some degree, a flirtation, at the very least? The way our eyes meet, and hold? The little ways we find to touch each other? Other people comment on it all the time. Am I really the only one who never noticed? _Shit_. Has Cas noticed? Did I blow it already?

  * _Blow what? Guy’s still here, isn’t he? Been hanging around, what, **12 years** now_?



Yeah. No matter how often I yelled at him, blamed him for shit that wasn’t his fault, dumped on him, expected things from him that I had no right to expect…. Still here.

  * _Sounds like before I do or say anything else, I owe Cas an apology. Or sixty_.



Yeah. I do. I really do.

  * _Maybe do that first, and see where things go from there_.



Yeah. I can do that. Apologize. Okay.

***

Dean glanced through the door into the library. Good. Cas was still there. He walked over to the table, and sat down.

“Cas? You got a minute?”

Cas put his book down. “Of course, Dean.”

“Um, Cas, I need to tell you that I’m sorry. I haven’t been a good enough friend to you.”

“I think you’re an excellent friend, Dean.”

“No, Cas, I’m not. I yell at you at the drop of a hat, I’m irritable and grumpy and upset with you over nothing all the time, I dump my problems on you and expect you to fix them, and I blame you for things that aren’t your fault. I push you away, and yet, here you are.

“Why is that, Cas? Why are you still here? It’s been _12 years_ , man, of me crapping on you. Why’d you stay?”

“Because I love you, Dean. It’s true, I don’t always like your behavior toward me. But I know your _soul_ , Dean. You’re the man who helps children, from raising Sam, to Ben, to Jack, and all the others you’ve helped over the years. You resisted the Mark, you resisted Michael, you’ve literally been through Hell, and resisted Hell’s temptation for thirty years. **_You’re the guy who saves the world, Dean_**.

“Oh, and you have the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen.”

Dean’s jaw dropped open. “Wait…what?”

“You’re beautiful, Dean. I’ve always thought so.”

Cas’ eyes sparkled. “Let’s see. Why else do I stay? Hmmm. You have excellent taste in music, you’re a great cook…. Oh, and I like the way you look in those shorts you wear when you wash the cars.”

“Cas…. Are you kidding me?”

“No, Dean. I’ve just been waiting a long time for you to say something, so I’ve had time to think about what I’d say. Time you _haven’t_ had, if I understand the claim’s limitations correctly.”

“Wait, you….”

“Knew that you not only couldn’t tell me you loved me, but couldn’t even think it? Of course, Dean.”

“How long have you known about the claim, Cas?”

“Always. The claim followed you to Hell and back, after all. The chains it set on you were plain to see. _Alaistair used them to bind you to the rack_. I didn’t know to whom you were bound, but I knew that a bond existed, and would take priority over the bond that you and I share.”

“So, you also know that it’s broken now?”

“Yes. I knew the moment it dissolved.”

“So, wait, if you and I share a bond….”

“It’s not a trap, Dean. You can choose it, or refuse it. It’s essentially a bond of _brotherhood_ , which is why the claim between you and Olivia allowed you to let me in as much as it did. And it can remain a brotherly relationship, if that’s what you choose. Or it can develop into more. It’s up to you, Dean.

"But as I said, I’ve had time to think about what I want. You haven’t. So why don’t you do that, Dean? _Go and think about what you really want_. Figure it out, and let me know when you’re ready.”

***


	17. Deep Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean has some deep thinking to do. And then he has to tell Sam what he's decided.

Dean had some deep thinking to do. He figured he might as well be comfortable - his thoughts weren’t going to be – so he laid on his bed, and stared at the ceiling.

_Who was he_ , and _who did he want to be_?

Cas’ description of him hardly seemed real: _“You’re the man who helps children, from raising Sam, to Ben, to Jack, and all the others you’ve helped over the years. You resisted the Mark, you resisted Michael, you’ve literally been through Hell, and resisted Hell’s temptation for thirty years. You’re the guy who saves the world, Dean.”_

He knew that each separate element of that description was technically true, but overall it made him sound… _heroic_. Was he a hero? He certainly didn’t think he was a _villain_. At least, not usually. He didn’t _want_ to be a villain. So…maybe a _flawed hero_? Good motives, but prone to mistakes? Yeah, that was him in a nutshell. Okay, he thought he could accept being a flawed hero. That sounded… _true_.

_What did he want? Did he want to be alone? Did he want to continue having meaningless flings? Or did he want to consistently be with someone else in a real, romantic relationship, now that he had a chance at that? And if so, with whom did he want to be?_

Could it be…Cas? The thought of being in a relationship with Cas continued to skitter away from the center of his consciousness. For the entire time that he had known Cas, he hadn’t been able to even consider that thought, and his brain had been trained to avoid it. So, maybe it would be better to start with broader questions, and narrow it down to the concept of “someone in particular (Cas?)” later.

So. _A relationship in general - did he want one?_

Dean rather thought he might. He’d been alone, had all kinds of experience with that, and no, he really didn’t want to be alone anymore. And meaningless flings had lost their charm long ago.

Unburdened by the claim, given a real chance to succeed, a relationship could be good. He remembered being with Lisa, and there had been times that relationship had been good, even with the claim in place.

He could see now how his claim on Olivia had negatively affected his relationship with Lisa – he’d been distant, sometimes cold, unable to articulate his feelings properly, and his concern for the safety of Lisa and her son, Ben, had manifested in controlling, manipulative behavior that he thought now might have scared him more than it had them. And while the controlling, manipulative behavior had been learned at the hands of his father, the rest of that had all been due to the claim. Not him, right?

But the claim was his doing. _Shit_.

Well, yes, _setting_ the claim had been his doing. And _not telling Olivia that it could be broken_ , that had been his fault, too. But if Livvy hadn’t run off, he would have broken it back then, and it wouldn’t have festered. He wasn’t blaming Livvy for running, but not being able to break the claim once she had left wasn’t his fault, so neither was the toxicity. Right?

Dean sighed. Sorting through what was and what wasn’t really his fault was hard. He was used to just taking responsibility for everything.

_Or just blaming everything on Sam or Cas_. He winced, but he also recognized the truth of that. Ouch.

_Shit_.

Sorting through past relationships and accepting blame was all well and good, but was it getting him any closer to an answer? Well, yes. _He wanted a relationship_. That was an answer.

And keeping a _healthy_ relationship would depend on his ability to recognize his past mistakes, and then not make those same mistakes again.

_Coldness. Distance. Unable to articulate his feelings. Controlling, manipulative behavior_.

Well, the coldness, distance, and inability to talk about feelings had been due to the claim, and the claim was broken. So, maybe he could change.

_So…did he want to?_

Yes. He did. He didn’t want to be alone. He didn’t want meaningless fluff. He wanted something _real_.

So…did he want it with **_Cas_**?

_Shit_. He’d already made all of those mistakes with Cas. For years. _But…Cas had said that he loved Dean. Didn’t always like Dean’s behavior, but loved him anyway, and thought Dean was beautiful_. So, if Dean could change his behavior, and with the claim broken, he should be able to….

It just came down to one thing. _Did Dean want **Cas**?_

Cas was the best friend, besides Sam, that he’d ever had. Cas had been family for a long time, to both him and Sam. He loved Cas, and it was different from the way he loved Sam. Even with the claim limiting him, he’d danced around the edges of a flirtation with Cas for years. He thought Cas was beautiful, too.

Dean sat up slowly.

Well, what do you know? He _did_ want Cas. _He wanted a relationship with Cas, and he wanted it to work_. He wanted to _make_ it work.

_He was in love with an angel_.

To quote Sam: **_Holy shit_**.

***

Dean knocked quietly, just once, on Sam’s door. He heard some muffled noises, so he moved back from the door to the other side of the hallway, and waited. A few seconds later, Sam opened the door, stuck just his head out, caught sight of Dean, and grinned at him.

“I need to talk to you, Sam.”

“One sec, Dean.” Sam closed the door. Dean heard muffled laughter, and smiled softly.

The door opened, and Sam stepped out into the hall, pulling on a sweatshirt as he did so. “Let’s go down to the movie room,” Sam suggested.

“Yeah, okay.” That was only a few doors down, so Dean waited.

Once they were seated comfortably, Sam on the sofa, Dean in a comfortable chair, Dean found it hard to get started, so he decided to deflect for just a minute, and asked, “Happy, Sammy?”

“Yeah, man. I really am. How about you, Dean?” Sam peered at him.

“I’m…okay. I still need to talk to Jack, I owe him an apology, too. But I talked to Cas, Sam.”

“Yeah? How’d that go?”

“It went okay, I guess.”

“Okay, you guess? Dean, get to the point.”

“Yeah, Sam, I’m trying, okay? Sixteen years of avoiding it has really made talking about my feelings hard. But I did apologize to Cas.”

“For what?”

“ _For what?_ For not being a good enough friend to him, for yelling, being a major pain in his ass, dumping my problems on him, blaming him for everything, and generally crapping all over him. And then I asked him why he had stayed. For 12 years, he stayed, despite my being an ass. And do you know what he said, Sam?”

“That he loved you?”

Dean blinked. “Wait…what? How’d you know that, Sam?”

“Duh. It’s _Cas_ , Dean. He’s _always_ loved you.”

“Well, okay, as a brother, maybe….”

“No, Dean. You loved Cas as a brother. Not the other way around.”

Dean paused for a long moment. “Sam?”

“Yeah, Dean?”

“Am I really….”

“The only person who didn’t realize how Cas felt about you? Yeah, Dean. You are. The claim left you with a major blind spot.”

Dean blinked.

“So? Then what? I mean, the claim is gone, so there must’ve been more to it than that, right?” Sam asked.

“Well…yeah. I kinda felt like I’d been hit with a sledgehammer, and Cas said that he’d been waiting a long time, and had had time to think about what to say, and I needed to take some time to figure out what I wanted.”

“Sounds right. And?”

“So, I went and thought about things. The only real long-term relationship I’ve ever been in, that wasn’t with family, that worked for any length of time, was with Lisa. So I thought about what went wrong with her. And I think that mostly it was behaviors that were due to the claim’s limitations on me. So, now that the claim is broken, I should be able to change those behaviors, right?”

Sam nodded slowly, following the logic as Dean explained his thinking.

“And if I change those behaviors, and actively try _not_ to make those same mistakes, theoretically, I should be able to make a new relationship work. So, then I had to decide if I wanted a relationship. I considered whether I wanted to just stay alone, and decided that I don’t. And I don’t want to drift along and have meaningless one-nighters, either. I’m done with all that. So, yes, I decided that I want to be in a relationship, and I want it to work, so I want to change my behavior.”

“Okay, that makes sense, Dean. And?”

“So then I had to decide…if I wanted that relationship to be… _with Cas_. And… _yes, I do_.” Dean whispered the last three words, and looked very studiously at the floor, not wanting to see how Sam reacted to the news that his older brother had decided that he wanted a homosexual relationship with a non-human.

“Well, of course you do, Dean.” Sam said it quietly, but Dean detected no mockery in his tone. “Good for you. Congratulations.”

Dean met Sam’s eyes, and Sam looked back steadily, with quiet approval and a tiny smile and nod. Dean slowly let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and nodded back.

“Thanks, Sam.”

“Always, Dean.”

***


	18. Desires, Dreams, Explanations, and Apologies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean feels lighter; he chats with Cas. Then he has to explain some things to Jack.

Dean looked in the library, but Cas wasn’t there, and the table had been cleared. He went to the kitchen; no angel, but there was a freshly made pot of coffee that was down one cup, so it was likely Cas had been there recently. Dean got a cup of coffee for himself, and went into search mode.

And an hour later, had nothing to show for it. Neither Cas nor Jack were anywhere to be found, and Cas’ truck wasn’t in the garage.

Dean figured they’d probably gone on a supply run. He wasn’t going to panic; they’d be back, and then he could talk to them. So he went back to the kitchen, deciding it was late enough to get a start on dinner. He pulled out the ingredients for lasagna, and got busy, a swing in his step.

He put the lasagna noodles on to boil and the red sauce on to simmer, and got out the largest bowl he had to make the ricotta filling. He danced around a little, humming, as he worked.

He felt…lighter. Cas had said the claim he’d held on Olivia had put chains on his soul, and he could believe it. It had weighed him down, making him bitter and angry, for years. And now he was free of it, and he felt good, for the first time in a very, very long time. Not just in a celebratory, _hey-we-caught-a-break, let’s-be-happy-for-a-minute_ , way, as he’d often felt, hunting with Sam and Cas, but just _good_. Like he was a good _person_ , a happy person, _optimistic_ , even.

And he thought that should feel weird, or off, somehow. But it didn’t.

It just felt… _right_. He liked the way it felt.

He drained the noodles, turned off the stove, and preheated the oven. He began to build the lasagna, layer by layer, then sprinkled grated parmesan cheese over the top, and put it in the oven to bake. He grabbed a soda from the refrigerator, and sat down at the table to relax.

Dean was idly thumbing through an old issue of a magazine about cars, when he heard Cas and Jack come in the front door. That usually meant they’d gone grocery shopping and didn’t want to lug everything up the long way to the kitchen from the garage, so he wasn’t surprised when they entered the room, laden with plastic bags.

“Need help, guys?” he asked.

“No, we got everything in one trip, Dean, but thanks!” Jack told him, as he set his bags down on the floor by the refrigerator and started to unpack them.

Cas set his bags down by the counter by the coffeemaker, and got out a mug. Much as he loved Jack, the kid was a little hyper sometimes, and Cas needed a caffeine hit after their grocery run. Jack came and got Cas’ bags, and put those groceries away, as well, as Cas doctored his coffee with creamer, and came over to sit down next to Dean.

“Lasagna for dinner, guys; it’s in the oven, now, so we’ll probably eat in about an hour. You want to run down to Sam’s room, and tell Sam and Liv, Jack?” Dean suggested.

“Sure, Dean!” Finished with the groceries, Jack sped off. Cas shook his head, amused.

Dean smiled at Cas, just watching him for a moment.

Cas looked up and saw the smile, and felt his own heart lighten. He smiled back.

“Hey, Cas.”

“Hello, Dean.”

“I’ve been thinking.” Dean’s smile widened, and his green eyes sparkled.

Cas’ blue eyes twinkled, as his own smile became a grin. “That’s good, Dean.”

“Aren’t you curious, Cas? Don’t you want to know what I’ve been thinking _about_? You never _ask_ , Cas.”

“If you want me to know, you’ll tell me, Dean.”

“Okay, Cas. I’ll tell you, then. I’ve been thinking about _you_.”

“Good thoughts, Dean?”

“I think so, Cas. I think I’ve been having _very_ good thoughts about you.” Dean grinned.

Cas sipped his coffee, smiling behind the mug.

“I figured out what I want, Cas. So, now, I have a question for you.”

“Okay, Dean.” Cas waited, patiently.

Dean took a deep breath, happy, but a little nervous. “Cas, you said that you love me. Well, I love you, too. So, now that I’ve finally figured that out, twelve years late, the question is this – do you want to be with me? Because I want to be with _you_ , Cas. I really do, and I want to make it work.

“So, will you help me? Help me unlearn all the negative crap that’s been swimming around in my head all these years, so I don’t fuck this up? Because I have to tell you, good as I feel about this, I’m terrified that I’ll screw it up, man.”

Dean had kept his eyes on Cas’ face while speaking, but now he closed them, waiting for Cas to respond. Cas didn’t make him wait.

“Yes, Dean. Yes, I want to be with you; yes, I want to make it work, too; yes, I’ll help you. _Yes_. **_Yes to everything, Dean_**.”

Dean’s eyes flew open, and he caught the angel’s grin, a second before Cas jumped up, set down his mug, and pulled Dean into a hug. Dean hugged back, and felt at peace.

***

After dinner, Dean asked Jack to help wash the dishes and clean the kitchen. Cas went to the library, and Sam and Olivia drifted off to watch TV.

Dean and Jack worked in an easy rhythm, Dean washing and Jack drying. When that was done, Dean asked Jack to take a seat.

“Um, sure, Dean. Did I do something wrong?” Jack asked, his brow furrowed.

“No, Jack. Um…actually, I owe _you_ an apology,” Dean told him, as he slid into a chair.

Jack looked surprised. “For what?”

Dean took a deep breath. “Jack, for a long time now, I’ve had issues that were difficult for me to deal with, or even admit, even subconsciously. You didn’t cause them, they had nothing to do with you, it was the result of something that I did, a long time ago, before you were ever even thought of, way back during the time when Sam was at Stanford.

“I hadn’t even realized how much my actions back then still weighed on me – still, in a very real sense, controlled me, my attitude, and my actions. I’ve taken steps to resolve that old situation, and, as a result, now I can see all the damage it did to me, and all the damage that I did to others, including you, as a result.”

Jack nodded, slowly. “Is this about the chains that were on your soul, Dean? Because I don’t see them on you, anymore.”

“You could _see_ them, Jack?” Dean asked, surprised.

“Oh, sure, Dean, clear as day. They looked heavy, and maybe painful. And now they’re _gone_ ,” Jack assured him. “Olivia had a set, too. And then for awhile Sam seemed to, as well, but it was just for a few weeks, and I didn’t see them as clearly on him. And now they’re gone from both of them, too.”

“Yes, they are. Good, I’m glad you could see them, Jack. That makes it a little easier to tell you how sorry I am for distrusting you early on, not letting you in. I wasn’t able to love you properly due to the chains, Jack, and I’m sorry for it.”

“Well, if it was the _chains_ preventing you from loving me, Dean, why should _you_ be sorry for that?” Jack asked.

“Because I’m the one who caused the chains to exist, by doing some things I should never have done in the first place. It’s not my fault the chains were still there, and causing the problem, but it’s my fault they ever came into being.”

“Dean, I don’t want to pry, so if you don’t want to tell me, or can’t tell me, what it was that you did, that’s okay. But I think I should know how to avoid the same mistakes, shouldn’t I?” Jack asked.

“Well, Jack, that’s a good question. I know you want to be careful not to cause harm to others, and that’s why you ask it. So, I’ll try to explain it.

"But first, let me tell you, right off - it isn’t really anything _you_ need to worry about doing, Jack, because it has to do with secondary gender designations, and because of your angel DNA from Lucifer, that’s not something that will ever affect you. Angels don’t have secondary gender designations.

"But you know that some humans do, right? Do you understand how that works, Jack?”

Jack scrunched his nose, thinking. “Well, partly. Sam hasn’t actually covered that in our biology studies. I read a little bit about secondary gender designations, but I didn’t understand it. It seemed really complicated.”

Dean nodded. “It can be, yes. Okay, so…. With some humans, it isn’t a thing at all. Those humans are called ‘betas.’ But some of us have some extra organs, and an extra part of the brain, that betas don’t have. And those of us who have the extra organs are divided into two groups, ‘alphas,’ and ‘omegas,’ and we develop those extra organs essentially overnight at around age sixteen – usually right on our sixteenth birthday, in fact. And that’s called ‘presenting.’ Someone who develops the extra organs that give them a secondary gender ‘presents’ as either an alpha or an omega. The scent they give off makes their designation obvious to the rest of us who have the extra organs, because one thing the extra part of our brain does is to make our sense of smell stronger than a beta’s is. Not only stronger, but more capable of distinguishing different scents, and what they mean. When I’m around an alpha, or an omega, I can smell their emotions, because the pheromones they give off have a specific scent. So, if Sam or Olivia were frightened, I would be able to smell their fear.

“Sam and I, we’re both alphas. Olivia is an omega. And for the three of us, the ‘extra’ organs are simply the extra part of the brain and the scent organ in our necks, because our _secondary_ genders are identical in nature to our _primary_ genders. 

“It gets a little more confusing when a female is an alpha, or when a male is an omega. People with those designations are essentially hermaphrodites; when they turn sixteen, they not only develop the extra part of the brain and the scent organ, they also develop the opposite sex organs from the ones they were born with, and are able to use both sets. So a female alpha and a male omega could both impregnate someone else, or be impregnated themselves. Are you following this, Jack?”

“I think so, Dean.”

“Now, what happened in my situation, that put the chains on my soul? That has to do with a couple of things. First, rut and heat cycles, and marking and claiming. Do you know anything about that, Jack?”

“No.” Jack was listening intently.

“Okay. Hmm. Well, let’s see. It’s an evolutionary thing, that came down from ancestors common to both humans and wolves. Sometimes, you might hear an alpha or an omega refer to their ‘inner wolf.’ Most of the time, the ‘inner wolf’ is tucked away in that extra part of the brain, but there are times when it comes to the fore. For example, if an alpha and an omega are a mated pair, and the omega is threatened in some way by someone else, the alpha's 'inner wolf' would come to the fore to protect and defend the omega.

"An omega has what’s called a “heat cycle.” An alpha has something similar, called a “rut cycle.” And during a heat or rut cycle, the person develops a high fever, and the only thing that brings it down effectively is sexual stimulation, though Tylenol or a cold bath can also help in the short term. And another of the times the ‘inner wolf’ comes out is during sex during those fevers.

“The chains that were on my soul , and Olivia’s, came about because sixteen years ago, I had a very bad, dangerously high, ‘rut fever,’ and Livvy helped me through it by giving herself to me, sexually, over the course of two nights. And my ‘inner wolf’ came out, and claimed her. And that’s a very literal thing, Jack. When an alpha claims an omega during sex, the alpha ‘marks’ the omega by biting them, usually near the scent gland in the neck. And then the alpha states the claim, by saying, ‘you’re mine,’ and then, if the omega admits out loud that the omega belongs to the alpha, the claim is set. It forms chains on the souls of the alpha and the omega that bind them together. 

“Now, normally, those are light chains; they bind, but they don’t harm the pair, and the pair lives out their lives comfortably mated to each other. But in our case, my 'inner wolf' took control of me, and I lost all semblance of sanity, forced Olivia to admit that she was mine by hurting her during sex, and staked a claim that she didn’t want. Now, that claim wasn’t technically valid, because Liv’s consent to it was obtained under duress. And I would never have held her to it, and I could have broken it, easily. But Livvy didn’t know that – she thought it was a permanent, unbreakable thing – and I frightened her, and hurt her so badly, that she couldn't trust me, so as soon as she could get away from me, she ran, before we could talk about what to do.

“The chains that were formed on us as a result were heavy and burdensome – more so in my case because I was so in the wrong to do what I did, and also because of what happened to me later, in Hell – and they festered, like an untreated infected wound, and warped the way that both of us dealt with relationships. Olivia was in love with Sam, but couldn’t tell him, because the claim prevented her from saying the words. And I’ve basically been incapable of a real relationship with anyone ever since the claim was set.

“And that’s why I couldn’t handle my emotions when it came to you, Jack. You were as much my son as you were Cas and Sam’s child, but I couldn’t love you. The claim made me push you away and made me see you as something you weren’t, in order to stop me from loving you. And I hated it, but I couldn’t tell you, and the more I fought it, the tighter the chains bound me, until I could barely breathe, and I struck out at you, verbally, as a result. And then I hated myself for it, but I couldn’t make it stop.”

Jack nodded, accepting the explanation. “So, Dean, what dissolved the chains, finally?”

“When Olivia first came here, Jack, when you brought her here that day, she was about to enter her heat cycle. And she had been taking drugs to suppress her cycle, in order not to have to, essentially, have sex with random strangers to get through it, for about 3 years, but she had run out of the drugs. So her cycle was a dangerous one, and rather than the 3 days it would normally take, it took thirteen days, and nearly killed her. In order to get her through it, I had to help her, because I was the alpha who set the claim on her. But I couldn’t do it alone, so we agreed to temporarily expand the claim to include Sam, as an alpha lower in the hierarchy of the ‘pack,’ so that he could help her as well. And once it was over, and Liv had recovered, we broke the claim entirely. And then Sam and Liv were able to finally tell each other how they felt about one another.

“And now, I’m able to explain all of this to you, and to tell you that I do love you, Jack. And I can look at you now and see you for who and what you are, and I’m so proud of you, son. You always try to make good choices and to do the right thing. You’re good, and you’re smart, and you’re beautiful. And I’m sorry that I couldn’t see it, and couldn’t tell you that before.”

Dean swiped at his eyes, as more than one tear had formed during that last little speech. He looked at Jack, who seemed a bit stunned.

But then Jack said, thoughtfully, “I’m glad the chains are gone, Dean. I don’t think you actually did owe me any apologies. I suspect you’ve already apologized to Olivia, and to Sam, and probably to Cas, too. You’ve always taken more than your share of blame. But I’m happy that you’re able to see me for me, and to love me, now, because I love you, too, Dean. You’re my _dad_. You always were. And I’ve always just wanted for you to be happy, and now I think you can be.

“Can I ask one more thing, though, Dean?”

“What’s that, Jack?” Dean eyed Jack, a bit warily.

“Does this mean that you’ll _finally_ put Cas out of his misery?” Jack grinned, as Dean’s jaw dropped.

“Seriously? Was I _really_ the _only_ ….”

“The only one who didn’t realize that the two of you should be together? Um, yeah. _Duh_. Get with the _program_ , Dad!”

Jack jumped up and ran off with his usual energy, leaving Dean shaking his head in wonder.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jack's a wiseass, but he's right.
> 
> Happy endings for all in the next chapter. :)


	19. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weddings and babies. I promised a happy ending, didn't I? :)

**_One Year Later…._ **

Sam’s nose itched, so he scrunched up his face, trying to make it stop without having to actually wake up. He was having such a _good_ dream. It wasn’t _fair_ to have to wake up yet.

In his dream, he lived in an underground _palace_ , or at least, it seemed like one, with the people he loved most in the world. His brother, Dean. His best friend, Cas. Their son, Jack. And there was _someone else_ …but in the way of dreams, the identity of the last person, the most important person, in the palace, skittered away in his brain. In his dream, he wandered the hallways of the palace for a long, looking for the other person, but, annoyingly, not finding them.

Now this dream was pissing him off. _I stayed asleep for **this**?_

And then, of course, he woke up, and discovered that the reason his nose itched was because his very-soon-to-be-wife was tickling it with a feather. He turned his head toward the wall, away from her.

“Livvy, you can’t be in here _today_!” He whispered, horrified – a lifetime as a hunter had taught him the importance of superstition.

“Sam, I slept here _last night_ , of course I’m here _today_ , silly. Where else would I be?”

_“But I can’t see you **before the wedding**!”_

“Ah. Well, I can help with that, my love. _Close your eyes_ ,” Olivia laughed as she said it, but Sam did as she asked…and gasped softly as she blindfolded him.

“There. Now you can’t see me, Sam. Problem solved.” She leaned over and kissed him, and he, blindfolded or not, flipped her over onto her back. And as she giggled and opened herself to him, he slid into her all the way, as deep as he could go, and knew that he was home.

***

Down the hall, Cas lay behind Dean on the bed, stretched out on his side, watching Dean breathe as he slept, also on his side, facing away from Cas. Then Dean rolled onto his back, and his eyes fluttered open, and he looked up at Cas, and smiled. The smile that Cas loved, the tender, sweet, _happy_ smile that lit up Dean’s whole face and made his green eyes shimmer, the one that had been on Dean’s face more and more often in the past year, since the claim had been broken and the chains removed from Dean’s soul.

“Hey, Cas.”

“Hello, Dean.” Cas smiled back.

“Are you ready?”

“Of course, Dean. Are you?”

“Yeah, Cas. Told you a year ago, I wanna make this work.”

Cas leaned down and kissed Dean, lightly. Dean brought his hand up to tug gently on Cas’ hair, pulling him down for a deeper kiss. When Dean let go, Cas looked down at him lovingly. Dean reached up and stroked Cas’ cheek with the back of his fingers.

“Hey, Cas. Let’s go get dressed. It’s a big day.” Dean grinned.

“Yes, Dean. A double wedding.” Cas grinned back.

***

**_Eight months later…._ **

Olivia gripped Sam’s hand like a vise. He winced a little, but took his punishment for being a man…like a man.

“C’mon, Olivia, push, you can do it, breathe, and push, one more, come on, push!” The doctor, a small redheaded woman, encouraged.

Olivia screamed at the peak of the contraction, and sat up from the pillow, straining, teeth bared, grimacing. “ _Samuel William Winchester! This is all your fault!_ ”

“Yes, Liv, it’s all my fault, you’re so right, baby, I’m so sorry, Livvy, but our babies want to be born now, honey, and this is how it’s done, you’ve gotta _push_ , sweetheart.”

“You utter **_BASTARD_**!”

“Yes, Liv, I’m a bastard, you’re absolutely right. C’mon, now, push, baby.”

“Son of a… ** _AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! SAAAMMMMMMMMM_**!” As she screamed, a baby’s head and shoulders emerged, and Sam’s heart stuttered in his chest.

“Oh, Livvy, you’re doing so well, baby, one more and we’ll have one baby out of you, honey, you can do it,” he told her.

“I can’t, Sam, I’m so _tired_ , and there are _two more_ after this one. Ohh, God, _you horrible CRETIN_ , _HOW could you DO THIS TO ME, Sam?_ _**Triplets**? Seriously_?” Olivia whimpered.

“I know, Livvy, I’m a horrible person. You’ve gotta _push_ , now, Liv, c’mon, honey, our babies want out of you, and you want them out, Liv, you know you do, so _push_ , honey, c’mon, you can hate me later, I expect we’ll get divorced, and that’s fine, honey, _whatever you want, baby_ , but you’ve gotta push for me.”

Sam exchanged an amused glance with the doctor. Olivia screamed again, and squeezed Sam’s hand, and he knew he was going to have to have Cas fix the broken bones, but Sam didn’t care, Livvy was pushing, and the first baby was out, and the second followed close behind, and then Olivia lay back against the pillows and panted.

“I broke your hand, didn’t I, Sam?” she gasped.

“Yes, Livvy.”

“You _deserved_ it.”

“Absolutely right, Livvy. C’mon, darlin’, one more time, love. You have to get one more baby out of there, honey, so you’ve gotta _push_ again.”

Olivia nodded weakly. She took a deep breath, and sat up a bit, straining, wincing, screaming again as the pain struck, pushing for all she was worth…and the third baby shot from her body onto the stained, bloody sheets.

“You did it, baby. _Good job_ , Livvy, all three are out.”

“One more push, Olivia, to deliver the placenta, and then you’re done with the hard part,” the doctor told her.

Olivia grunted, bore down once more, and it was over.

She collapsed back against the pillows. Sam stroked her hair back from her face gently.

The nurses brought the babies over, and gave one to Olivia to hold, and one to Sam. The doctor held onto the third, for the moment.

“So beautiful, Livvy. They’re so beautiful. Two boys, and a girl. Thank you, Liv.” Sam leaned down and kissed her gently.

***

A little later, outside the hospital nursery, Dean, Cas, and Jack waved and cooed through the window at the three tiny swaddled figures in the bassinettes labeled “Winchester Triplets.” Sam stumbled through a door from the maternity wing’s birthing suites, and caught sight of them before they noticed him. He grinned as he watched them fuss and waggle their fingers at the babies. He couldn’t get over Dean’s happy face. It was so good to see Dean finally, truly, happy.

“Hey, guys. Cas, can you…?” He held up his broken mangled hand.

Dean winced. “Livvy’s got a hell of a grip, huh, Sammy?”

“Of course, Sam.” Cas turned and tapped Sam’s wrist, and the hand was healed.

Sam sighed in relief at the sudden absence of pain. “Thanks, man.” Then he put his arms around his brother and brother-in-law, and went to coo at his children through the window.

***

**_Five years later…._ **

“Mary! Bobby! John! _Walk_ , don’t run!” Olivia yelled, as the triplets dashed off across the playground toward the swings, paying her absolutely no attention.

Sam laughed. “Give it up, Livvy, they’re fine. Kids run.”

Olivia grinned up at him. “Yeah, I know, but still. Don’t want them falling and getting hurt the day before they start school. Oh, Sam! Our kids in _school_! And they’ll go to the _same_ school, with the _same_ friends, all the way through!”

Sam took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it softly, then held it gently, their fingers entwined, as they watched the triplets play. “ _Thank you, Livvy_.”

“Thank _you_ , Sam.” She leaned up against him, and sighed happily.

***

**_The End...?_ **


End file.
